The lead story on some of the morning news shows this past week has been how many days until Christmas and which stores were offering free shipping for your purchases. Though that might not have been too important to those who were done with their shopping, I guess it was better to be hearing about those things instead of hearing of the continual chaos and gridlock in Washington, D.C. or Springfield. As it stands with today’s publishing date, there is only one more day of shopping left before Christmas.
For many people, the joy of Christmas is buying gifts for loved ones and then being able to see their faces on Christmas morning when the gift is being opened. The facial expressions and the body language are reward enough for the hassle of the crowds and the parking or the ordering online and hoping for the shipping to get the package to its destination on time.
For other people, the biggest joy of Christmas is just being together with family and friends. The gifts might still play an important part of the holiday, but it’s the time with people that ranks number one. The weeks leading up to Christmas are even enjoyable because of the anticipation of all the different things that will be experienced.
Maybe your family has some special food dishes served during the holidays which you are looking forward to enjoying. Whenever we got together with my mother’s side of the family as I was growing up, we could count on several foods that would come from their Swedish background. My wife has continued keeping part of my childhood alive by maintaining some of those traditions with our own family. These traditions seem to bind families to their past which brings back fond memories.

Whenever it is that your family gets together, it seems that the day comes to an end before most of us want it to be over. We’ve enjoyed seeing those who have made the day special. It’s a nice and fun event that has everyone pitching in with some part of the preparation, especially when the holiday extends over two or three days. When its been an enjoyable time of enjoying the traditions and the family and the special events — we wistfully say . . . “I wish Christmas would never end. ” Great news. It doesn’t have to end because Christmas should be in your heart.
That first Christmas was so opposite of what the day has become. Oh, there was great excitement with the angelic announcement to the shepherds and awesome worship of the wise men several weeks later as they presented their gifts, but the main thing that people were talking about was the Christ-child that had been born (Luke. 2:20). They were excited that the long-promised Messiah was now among them. Now, there was to be the eternal fix to the problem of man’s sin. The Child Himself was going to be the unspeakable gift (2 Corinthians 9:15) which Jesus and the apostles would proclaim to the world.
The first coming of the Son of God as recorded in Luke 2 has brought to mankind three of those most popular words which we find in Christmas cards: Love, Joy, Peace. It was the love of God which has provided the Savior for the benefit of all ages. John 3:16 says that God loves people so much that He does not want them to suffer the consequences of being judged in Hell.
Therefore, He gave His Son so that those who would put the trust of the safety of their soul in Christ would not have to suffer under the condemnation of sin any longer, but be assured of a home in Heaven when life on this Earth is over. That’s the greatest gift of Christmas---to know that your sin has been forgiven through your personal faith in Jesus (Matthew 1:21).
The fact that the Savior had been born was the reason that the angels said there was going to be great joy on Earth (Luke 2:10). Eternity is going to be a really, really long time. To know (1 John 5:13) that we have been given that eternal salvation by God (and not our own efforts of good works, or some denominational connection, or some declaration by a religious personage) is a joy beyond description. That knowledge helps us to be able to deal with whatever circumstances life brings to us here on Earth.
When we are right with God because of faith in Christ, which brings repentance of our sin, we are able to enjoy the peace that God gives because that condemnation (John 3:18) has now been broken. A life that is truly born-again (John 3:1-7) is seeking to grow in understanding and closeness to the Savior. It’s that kind of relationship (Philippians 4:7) that is making Christmas in our heart that can last all year long . . . and on into eternity. May you have a Merry Christmas this Tuesday . . . and its internal reality every day.

Pastor Cowan has been the pastor of First Baptist Church of Rochelle since 2001. Visit www.firstbaptistrochelle.org or listen Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. on 1060 AM radio.