God looked at sinful man and pitied him. Instead of creating a new earth with a new race of people to replace the humanity He did not need, He forsook the splendor of the heavens and came to us in the form of a helpless baby for the express purpose of suffering for us and dying for us. And yet our Heavenly Father sent His only Begotten Son to pay a debt He did not owe, that the debt of misery here on earth and in eternity we owe to sin, that we can never pay, may be paid in full. As Romans 5:8 states, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
How then should we respond to this revelation of God’s undeserved and incomprehensible love for humanity? The answer is simple yet profound: we must put our faith in Him. In Him, we find the true meaning of this gift of life given to us by the Father. For only in entrusting our entire beings into His Hands can we attain the abundant and eternal life in Christ.
With this abundant life, let us then seize every moment! We are called, not to waste time on worldly pleasures that carry no eternal significance, but to grab hold of every one of them and spend them in knowing, loving and serving our Loving God. In turn, with the life we live in Christ, we become gifts of joy that the people surrounding us partake and share.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we joyfully celebrate this wonderful season, let us embrace the true meaning of the life that we have received in Christ Jesus. Let us look at the wonder of the manger and see the birth of the Messiah as the supreme expression of grace by the Holy God towards us, sinners. From there, let us look further on and appreciate His passion as He spent His life and went through the most horrible and barbaric death so that He can complete the plan of redemption for us.
With this perspective, we can now look back on this year that is soon to pass with full appreciation of all its blessings and challenges. In the same way, with this perspective, we can now look forward to the coming year with anticipation of His miraculous move in all aspects of our lives. In this season of the joy of God’s gift of salvation to us, let us choose to experience His promise in John 10:10b, “…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Again, a truly blessed and glorious Christmas to all of us!