A Child is Born

Isaiah 9:6 - For unto us a child is bron, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 

This is one of my favorite times of the year. I know I'm not alone in this. We all love Christmas time. We love the lights, the Christmas Carols, and the generally festive mood. We love watching "It's a Wonderful Life" and "White Christmas". Although we get exasperated with the busyness of the season, and promise to do "something different" next year, we always get caught up in the "Christmas spirit." How could we not? We humans love to have a good time and Christmas is a good time to have fun. 

Yet very few of us will truly take timeto contemplate why we are celebrating. The humble origin of the Holiday is the birth of a baby who came to change the world by setting us free from the bondage of sin. The Son of God wasn't born in a stable so that we could eat fruit cake and sing about reindeer. I love the season as much as anyone. I enjoy the family get-togethers and the exchanging of gifts. It is always such fun to surprise someone with that "just right" present. And I would be lying if I didn't admit that I look forward to the things others will have for me. Yet the greatest gift is not what I will find under the tree on Christmas Eve. The greatest gift was given to the world a little more than two Millenia ago when God gave us the gift of His Son Jesus Christ as the first Christmas present. 

According to some counts there are more than 300 prophecies of the Messiah (The Promised One) in the Old Testament. Every Jew who was educated in the law knew at least a few of these prophecies. No doubt they often quoted them to one another in difficult times. Yet they missed his birth. They were so busy with the affairs of life that they missed the one they had been awaiting for more than 4,000 years. 

In this Christmas season, even as we supposedly celebrate the birth of our Lord, it will be easy to miss him. It will be easy to pass over the celebration of a humble birth for the lights and candles and presents. In my family we will exchange gifts on Christmas Eve. We will eat and laugh and have a good time. We may even watch a Christmas movie. But before we do any of that, we will first open the Scripture and read those timeless words from the book of Matthew chapter one, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise......"

Let's celebrate! Let's have a good time. But Let's not forget the reason for the celebration. For unto us a child is born!