If you could have the PERFECT CHRISTMAS, what would it look like? What would that experience be like?
For me the perfect Christmas would include having all the family together (especially the grandkids)! Everyone would be laughing and getting along. We’d all be sharing the perfect presents with one another and everyone would appreciate the gifts that they received. To boil it down, it would sound a lot like my mom. When I would ask, “What do you want for Christmas, mom?” She would simply say, “I just want you kids to all be happy….”
Unfortunately, we won’t all experience the “perfect Christmas” this year. The family will not all be together, because we will be missing loved ones who are no longer with us. Some of us will be all alone at Christmas. And those who are able to gather with family may still be dealing with unresolved conflicts and baggage that Santa did not bring on his sleigh.
No, we will not be able to experience the perfect Christmas unless we go back 2000 year ago to the first Christmas… A young couple, Joseph and Mary go back to the family’s “hometown”, only to find that there is no room for them, probably because the baby that Mary is soon to deliver is of suspect parentage if you know what I mean… No, the newlywed couple do not receive the honeymoon suite. Mary and Joseph are relegated to accommodations that only a cow and donkey could appreciate.
But the first Christmas in Bethlehem IS indeed the Perfect Christmas. God the Father has been planning this event for a long time. God is sending His Son away from heaven to be born in a dark and dirty stable, in a dark and dirty world to bring light and salvation!
That child Jesus came to fulfill promises that God had made through His prophet Isaiah years before: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” (Isaiah 9:2)
Jesus came into a dark, sinful world to bring hope, peace, joy and love. He would show His love most completely when he died on a cross many years later to pay the price for our sin. Our hope this Christmas comes from the resurrection power that Jesus demonstrated over sin and death that first Easter!
This year, you CAN celebrate a perfect Christmas, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Even if you find yourself all alone, with no presents, you can still celebrate God’s prefect love for you in Jesus Christ! May you find joy this Christmas in the perfect present that Jesus brings to you today is His gift of forgiveness, life and salvation!
Celebrating Christmas,
Pastor Maske