Why Christmas?
If Jesus had not been born, He certainly could not have died for the sin of mankind. The world was waiting thousands of years for a promised Messiah to come. Is it wrong to celebrate His advent (arrival)? If we can’t celebrate this, just what can we celebrate?
We celebrate Christ the Lord, the Savior of the world, the King of Kings! We celebrate how He came and how He demonstrated the love, wisdom, and purpose of our God. We also celebrate those regular people like us who obeyed the Lord’s command delivered by angels. They heard, believed, and acted on their faith, then saw with their own eyes the Child and the glory of that night in Bethlehem.
That first Christmas was, in a sense, a beginning for us all. We beheld in that Child and then in the Boy Who grew up something no one on earth had ever seen before: the face of God Himself. In Jesus we found out what God was really like, not what religion or circumstances, nature or history said He was. He is called Immanuel, which means “God with us,” and now He is with us forever.
The celebration of Christmas may or may not have started under the best of intentions, but these days many have redeemed it. They remember what happened long ago, and their focus on the Savior makes Him known to the world in a way that might not otherwise happen. Some people will not receive a single word of religion, but at Christmastime they will receive a Baby, and the hope that Jesus will one day rule the nations in truth and justice. It is true that many corrupt the holiday with commercialism and selfishness, just as they do other holidays. But we can choose to celebrate Christmas in ways that strengthen our relationship with God, family, and friends.
(Genesis 21:7-8, Exodus 12:17, Luke 2:8-16, John 6:46, John 14:8-10, Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:6-7, Micah 5:2)