The True Meaning of Christmas

Hallmark and the American culture has really amped up the way most of our society views Christmas and the Holiday season. Billions of dollars are spent on gifts of all shapes and sizes, wrapping paper, bows, tape, and Christmas cards. Family members try to outdo the other ones with who has the prettiest and best wrapping skills. Elf on the Shelf, the popular children's book, has taken over most homes with little ones. Charlie, the elf,  TP's the christmas tree and gets into all kinds of mischief chaning his hiding place every night up until the big day. Santa is glorified and adored by most children all around the country. Pictures with their best outfits are taken with Santa at the mall. Parents rattle off, "Santa is watching kids."
With all the hustle and bustle that comes along with the Holiday season, we must take the conscious effort to stop and ask ourselves: What is the true meaning of Christmas?

What really is the true meaning of Christmas? 
We don't find it unwrapping all of our gifts underneath the tree or opening up our stockings from Santa. After the countless hours spent wrapping, shopping, and cooking to prepare for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, what do we have to show for all the time invested into preparing? We open our gifts and then the day is over. Does any of the joy that comes from the gifts last

But then all of a sudden you change your mind and you just decide to put the gift up on the book shelf. You aren't going to open it.  You don't care to find out what is inside and you decide it will be best left unwrapped. It can't really be that great of a gift anway. You leave it and let it sit on the shelf, looking pretty still wrapped in the red glittery paper. Imagine for me for a second that you have a gift. It's beautifully wrapped in red glittery wrapping paper. A big bow is on top and it's from your favorite Aunt, who happens to be the BEST gift giver EVER. Last year she gave you an ipad, so you KNOW the gift is going to be amazing.  You shake it around and it kind of sounds like…. well you aren't sure what it sounds like, but you know you will love it. Your curiousity gets the best of you. You can hardly wait to open it. 
I believe that is how we view the gift that God freely gives to us. The true meaning of Christmas is about the greatest gift we will ever receive; Jesus, the small baby that was sent to Earth today. Most are very familiar with the story of Jesus' birth. In Luke 2 an angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds staying in the fields nearby where Jesus was born. The angel said three very important things to them. 
The first, "Do not be afraid." "Fear not" is in the Bible 365 times. God wanted us to understand this and said it enough times to remind us each day of every year. We have nothing to fear. Jesus came to take away  all our fears. WE NEED TO HEAR this and believe this each and every day of our lives. Fear consumes most of our lives. Will I have enough money this month, will I get my promotion, will I get an A in class, will I ever get married, will I battle this cancer, will I get into college? The list goes on and on. Jesus has our back and came to take away all those fears. We must give them over to Him to deal with. 

The next thing the angel said was this: "Fear not, don't be afraid-- I bring you GOOD NEWS that will bring great joy to ALL PEOPLE."
Do you get what that means? Christinaity is not a religion-- it's a relationship with a living Jesus. John 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world that He sent his One and only Son, that WHOEVER believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him." God did not come to condemn us and to give us orders and rules to follow. The world was already condemned before He sent Jesus. Jesus came to restore us with the Father. AND THAT IS THE GREATEST NEWS we could ever hear. God so loved the world that He sent Jesus, but Jesus so LOVED his Father that HE came to save us! :)

Being a Christian is not exclusive-- there is only one way to God, but PRAISE God there is a way and it's available to EVERY SINGLE PERSON. Every single person. Not the good ones, the rich ones, or the one's that have never messed up in their life. We all have the choice to be saved and adopted into God's family.

Lastly, the angel said, "Fear not. Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will bring great joy to ALL people! The Savior-- yes, the Messiah, the Lord-- has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!"

Family in Sanibel for Christmas

What is a Savior? Our jobs, family, and paychecks don't save us. Jesus is our Savior and He came to save us from our real issues-- SIN. Life in Him is the greatest gift we will ever receive. 

Many of us have that red glittery gift sititng on our bookshelves, our kitchen counter, or stored away in our closets; untouched, unwrapped, too afraid to open and see what is inside. My friends, I beg you to open it up this Christmas season. Jesus loves you, but He won't force you to love Him.

One of the many blessings God has given me after opening His gift

Jesus says in Revelation 3:20, "Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. " You may have already let Jesus through the door, or maybe Jesus is still standing and knocking on the door to your heart.  

One of my favorite writers C.S Lewis states who Jesus really was this way:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” 

Never in my life have I felt more love than at Our Own Home in Jinja, Uganda.
My Home away from home

It might be pretty sad for you to miss out on that new Iphone 5C that your Aunt gave you in that red glittery package that you have decided not to open, but it would be devastating for you to not open the free gift of love, peace, joy, and eternal life that Jesus freely offers to you today. Because of His birth today and his death and resurrection 33 years later, we have the choice to accept Him this Holiday season and to be adopted into His family.
I know for me, personally, the red glittery package was scary and untouched for many years. I thought I had opened it as a little girl, and I may have, but I got caught up in the world and was trapped in a self-consuming lifestyle. I am so thankful to God for allowing me to open my heart to receiving God's gift 3 1/2 years ago. God continues to surprise me and take me on a journey I never could have dreamt for myself. To all those in Africa, Nicaragua, and here at home I pray that God touches you through my words that were directed by God, and I pray you join me in this incredible life along side Him; Our Savior.

Merry Christmas