Are You Too Busy This Christmas?

Christmas is rapidly approaching and I need to get the card list done, then write the Christmas letter, mail the cards, buy some presents, and the list seems to go on and on. I have plenty of company because I see many people in similar situations.

All this activity is just part of the season. When I was a child, it just served to heighten my excitement and anticipation. However, it also did something else: it sometimes kept me so excited that I lost sight of one of the great lessons Christmas has. Now as an adult, the same thing happens because of being so preoccupied with the to do list.

That lesson is what is behind the angels, Mary’s incredible secret, the Magi as they travel and give gifts, and the shepherds as they praise God. It is the incredible, almost unconceivable fact that God loves us so much.

Paul expresses God’s love this way, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. … But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (9) Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! (10) For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” {Romans 5:6, 8} Peter writes, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God." {1 Peter 3:18}

God the Father loves us so much that he sent the Son to earth to die for you and me. God the Son loves us so much that he left Heaven to come to the Earth, live here, endure suffering, and die for you and me. God the Spirit loves us so much that he worked all through time and continues to work in you and me today. Notice, as Paul and Peter make clear God did all this while we did not like him, serve him, and were his enemies!

Take some moments away from your lists and think how much Christmas shows about God’s love to you. May we be like Joseph, Mary, the shepherds and the Magi and obediently praise God for his incredible love!

Written by Rev. Daniel B. Baker December 2004



Articles by Rev. Daniel B. Baker :: Webmaster: Joseph I. Baker