A Different Look At Christmas

Given December 12, 2012

From The Beginning.  God began by creating a perfect world in the Garden of Eden and created a man and woman to begin the perfect process blessing them and telling them to, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and have dominion over it.” (Genesis 1:28 paraphrased).  But that old snake, Satan, came in and tricked them into letting his influence into that perfect environment and things went bad from there.  It got so bad that God was grieved and sorry He had created man, (Genesis 6:6), but, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:8).

So God decided to try again.  He wiped out all the evil people and everything on earth with the flood except Noah and his family and He blessed them and told them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.” (Genesis 9:1)… again.  One of Noah’s sons, Shem, was good and did this but the other two, Ham and Japheth disregarded God’s plan and went off on their own.  Evil began to fill the earth…again.  God had told Noah He would not destroy the earth again so He had to come up with another plan.

This plan was not to destroy evil again but to show the people on earth how to take care of their sins, be blessed, live for God, and reserve a place for them in Heaven.  And the only way to do this was for God himself to come to earth, “Immanuel – God with us”, (Matthew 1:23).  He would come, live a perfect life, teach the people and, at the end, be killed taking the sins of everyone on Himself to the cross.  This way, He would give the people the choice of living for Satan and all that comes with that or living for God and receiving His blessing.  But to suddenly appear on earth as a man wouldn’t work so God came as a baby, baby Jesus.  “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11).  A Saviour.

That plan is still in effect today and is working for God’s people.  But, it’s our choice.  We celebrate Jesus’ birth this week; let’s remember why we do it and what it really means.  If you haven’t made that choice…do it today.  Merry CHRISTmas!