As you read this it is just a few weeks until Christmas. You have been, or will be busy, increasingly so, preparing for Christmas. So how is your preparation proceeding? And what direction is it taking?
Some years ago we found this unidentified quote. “There are really two Christmases. The one is the Christmas which praises God for sending His Son into the world to save us from sin and to give us (eternal) life through faith in Him.” The divine record testifies to the reality of the Heavenly Father’s love in promising a Savior from sin. It witnesses to the fact that the Father nurtured His promise through the centuries. This in itself was no small expression of love because the people so often rejected Him. But He who is not willing that any should perish was not dissuaded. He is faithful! He sent and called John the Baptist to go before Jesus to call people to repentance. When the fullness of time was come God sent forth His Son. The eternal Son of God to human flesh and blood, yet without sin. He was conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. In a manger the shepherds found Him as it was announced to them. Finally at the divinely appointed time the Lord Jesus died upon the cross. From the first prophecy in Genesis 3:15 through the birth of Jesus to the cross upon which He died, the message is one of God’s faithfulness and love for all people. It reassures and comforts all who believe in the Savior Jesus Christ Who atoned for our sin. For such it is the message of life.
True preparation for Christmas is not stressful. It costs nothing of a material nature. True preparation for Christmas is this simply that we repent of our sins and rejoice in the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This is one Christmas.
“The other Christmas is the nation-wide carnival that comes at the end of December, the Christmas of Santa Claus, which confesses no faith at all and in which any unbeliever or infidel can join without prejudice to his private beliefs or unbeliefs.” It is the Christmas the preparation of which is hyping the sale of goods, and the emotion of which is determined by the welfare of the economy when it is over. It is the time of parties and festivities which when it all is said and done makes us yearn from exhaustion for the end of the season. Christians much to their dismay get caught up in the tidal wave of this carnival too. If you don’t believe it, just ask yourself how you respond when someone asks, “Well, are you ready for Christmas?”