Christmas' Cost and Love

Christmas is a time of the year when we expect to receive good news. Many people insert a letter reviewing family news into their cards. Other people talk more on the phone than normal. Even better are special holiday visits to friends and family!

If you think about it God started this kind of thing that first Christmas. For instance Mary made that special visit to her cousin Elizabeth. It was so special that Luke devotes a good portion of Luke chapter 1. Also instead of sending a letter about family news God sends the choir of Angels to announce Jesus’ birth to the shepherds. Instead of a card God put a special star in the sky for the Magi to see and follow to worship Jesus.

God did all this and did it so superbly because he loves us so much. It was love that prompted the delivery of this “Good News” and of the truth behind it!

God had his angel make this announcement, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” {Luke 2:10-11} Later Jesus talks about the motivation behind this Good News of a Savior, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” {John 3:16-17} God’s love for you and me is behind the Good News of Christmas.

These verses about God’s love for you and me are so familiar they almost seem trite. That familiarity also encourages us to lose sight of how deep and costly God’s love is. God loves us so much that on that first Christmas God the Son Jesus Christ did all this out of love, “Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” {Philippians 2:6-8} That is costly Love, costly Good News, and a costly Christmas present.

This Christmas you will be sending cards and letters, making visits, and giving gifts. They will all cost you; the cost is in money, time, and energy. You will pay the cost for all you do because of your love and also reflect on the cost / love others send your way. This Advent season take some time to reflect on the cost and love behind God’s Good News and present to each one of us.

Have a joyous Christmas in the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Written by Rev. Daniel B. Baker December 2003



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