Christmas
..............................................................................................................
Why do we celebrate Christmas, what is it all about. For children it is a time of great excitement as they get the toys that up until now they have only dreamt about. For the adults it can be a very expensive time, for the older a big meal, a sleep and it is all over. But how did it begin? It is the time of the year when we remember the birth of God's son. The one prophesied in the old testament of our bible. Isaiah records, many hundreds of years before the event in Ch7 v13 "Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel" This has never happened before, God is bypassing human nature and sending his son into the world via the blessed virgin Mary. This sets him apart from the human race. he is not of Adams sinful lineage.
We may ask where will all this take place, well the old testament provides us with this information in Micah ch5 v2 "But thou Bethlehem Ephratah though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall we come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel" We are not only told where he would be born, but how successful he will be in a day yet to be. We have found from scripture how and where but when will this supernatural event take place. We have to go to our new testament to find this out, the apostle Paul writes to the church of Galatia in Ch4 v4 "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman" This great event has taken place the way God said and in the place God said. His son has become human flesh just like you and me, but we must remember although he became something he never was before, a human, he never ceased being what he always was, God. Paul reminds Timothy in his first letter Ch3 v11 "God was manifest in flesh" We now come to the question why did this have to be. The writings to the Hebrews give us the reason in Ch9 v26 "He (the child that was come) appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself". God in his matchless mercy and grace for mankind sent his only begotten son into this world to display how we should live but humans did not like God's plan for their lives and took this child that was come to Mary when he was 33 years old, and nailed him to a roman cross, but it was on that cross that God through his son obtained eternal redemption to all who will believe. That first Christmas was the beginning of God stooping down to the human race and offering them a way back to himself. We hope this Christmas is not just about presents, eating and family get togethers, but a time when we can thank God for the greatest gift ever given to humanity, His son, who because of his sinless life and sacrificial death is now able to save us from eternal punishment.