God’s love

I love Christmastime.  Always have.  I love the brisk weather.  I love big fluffy snowflakes, sparkling decorations, Christmas carols, cards and letters.  I love shiny presents under a Christmas tree, its branches adorned with mementos of Christmases past.  I love sugar cookies, hot apple cider, and gatherings with friends and family around a glowing hearth.  Best of all, I love the Christmas Story.  I never get tired of hearing about the shepherds watching their sheep at night, or of angelic hosts heralding Glad Tidings.  I can picture a scene of the Baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloths in a manger, of Joseph, a poor carpenter and his betrothed virgin Mary, looking on in wonder.  

Ponder the Miracle with them for just a moment.  Later there would come wise men from the East, bearing precious gifts, and then the threat of Herod and of God’s divine protection.  This is great stuff!  We couldn’t write a story like this, but God did.  It is the greatest love story ever told.  For God so loved us that He gave His only Son, not just to give us yuletide cheer, or to make us feel warm and fuzzy inside, but He gave us His Son Jesus, the Saviour who would reconcile us to God through His death and resurrection, so that now as His children we might call Him “Abba.”  What a story!  This coming year let us share it with someone who has never heard it.