A young boy came back from Sunday school with a fresh outlook on the Christmas narrative. He had discovered the story of the wise men from the East who presented gifts to the infant Jesus. His excitement was so great that he felt compelled to share it with his friends.
This is how he recounted it: “Today in Sunday school, I learned all about the very first Christmas. You see, there wasn’t a Santa Claus back then, so these three thin men on camels had to bring all the toys! And Rudolph the reindeer, with his bright nose, wasn’t around yet, so they had to rely on this large spotlight in the sky to navigate their way.”
“What is the true essence of Christmas?” If I were to pose this question to you, what would your response be? What does Christmas genuinely signify for you on a personal level? Is it the presents you anticipate receiving from your friends and your employer? Is it an additional month’s salary? Is it the numerous gatherings you will soon be attending? Or is it the enjoyment of shopping around?
Allow me to share a story that was shared in social media: A military specialist was invited to give a speech in St. Louis, Missouri. This occurred during World War II, and he faced challenges in securing a seat on the plane.
Nevertheless, he managed to obtain one and departed from his hometown of Boston. During his journey, he was “bumped” in Washington, D.C. by an army general who had priority. Feeling disgruntled and frustrated, the lecturer sat and waited while his flight continued to Missouri.
However, his disappointment paled in comparison to the general’s outrage upon arriving in St. Louis, only to find out that the speaker had canceled. The general’s frustration was complete when he realized that the speaker was the very individual whose seat he had taken in Washington!
The above story raises a thought-provoking question as we approach the Christmas season: Are the gifts we exchange with one another overshadowing His presence among us? What holds the utmost importance for us this Christmas?
Most of us are aware that Christ was not born on December 25. However, this is inconsequential. What truly matters is that the Almighty entered this world, took on human form, and sacrificed Himself for our sins so that we may dwell with Him in heaven.
This encapsulates the essence of the Holy Scriptures. “The whole Bible is built around the story of Christ and His promise of life everlasting to men. It was written only that we might believe and understand, know and love, and follow Him,” wrote Henrietta C. Mears in her book, What the Bible is All About.
The doctor walked out of the delivery room and approached an anxious father. He told him, “I am sorry to inform you but your baby lived only two hours after his birth, though we did everything we could to save his life.”
As the sympathetic doctor was about to leave, the quick-thinking father said, “I read only recently that human eyes are needed in corneal operations. Could my baby’s eyes be used to enable someone to see again?”
The next day, the Red Cross carried an eye to two different hospitals. In one, a corneal graft restored the sight of a working man with a large family. In the other, sight was given to a mother.
Over two millennia ago, a child was born into our sin-darkened world to offer spiritual enlightenment to all who are willing to accept it freely and without cost. “The people who walked in darkness, saw a great light” (Isaiah 9:1).
“We may not be able to do any great thing; but if each of us will do something, however small it may be, a good deal will be accomplished for God,” D. L. Moody once pointed out.
If we compared Jesus to some of us, He may not come to anything. But He had done more wonderful things than all of us combined. An unknown author penned something about Christ in these simple words: “He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in still another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years, he was an itinerant preacher.
“He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He didn’t go to college. He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born. He did none of these things one usually associates with greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He was only 33 when public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial.
“He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. When he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.”
Several centuries have come and gone, and today Jesus is the central figure of the human race, the leader of mankind’s progress. Ian McCrae declares: “Many who saw a Man hanging on a cross more than 2,000 years ago thought: ‘The Christian religion is dissolved.’ But it was not so. It is true now as it was then. The end is the beginning.”
As we wait for the coming of Christ’s natal day, let this prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi be a reminder: “Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is sadness, joy. Where there is darkness, light.
“O Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; not so much to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.”
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