Another Christmas season is behind us, and now we must determine how the birth of Christ will change how we live for the next 365 days. Because that’s the point, isn’t it? Christmas isn’t about giving and receiving gifts from others. It’s about accepting the gift given to us by God. It’s the only gift that lasts, the only gift that truly satisfies you, and the only gift that brings eternal life along with it.
How many times during the past Christmas season did you stop to consider that? How often are you considering it now? We don’t live with a sense of wonder and awe, but we should. The gift of Jesus is unbelievable, undeserved, without a doubt, unappreciated.
If we leave the experience of Christmas aside after the day of celebration, we have completely missed the point. Celebrating the birth of Christ is not a Biblical mandate, it is more of a cultural norm. And that is the problem. The cultural norm has become something normal and mundane. It’s just another cycle on our calendar, and once it passes, we’re on to the next thing. There is no next thing after Jesus. Jesus changes everything for those who believe.
Don’t live your life without a sense of wonder. Don’t fail to see the beauty available to you, even in a grotesque and fallen world. The glory of Jesus provides meaning to life, a salve for wounds, and healing for the broken-hearted. The birth of Christ led to the sinless life of Christ, resulting in the death and resurrection of Christ. All of this was to provide a perfect sacrifice of One who kept the whole law without fail so He could die in the place of all of us who are damned by falling short of God’s standard. The birth of Jesus provided a way to a new birth and eternal life for all who will receive Him as Lord.
You can’t celebrate Christmas rightly without a sense of wonder about how God brought it all together. Prophecies that were hundreds and even thousands of years old were fulfilled at His birth. Instead of being dead in our sin with no hope of making it right with God, we have been given the opportunity to be forgiven of all we have done and spend eternity in the presence of our Creator. Every man and woman of every tribe and nation can receive this gift. We must only humble ourselves and accept it.
The birth of Jesus should change us not for a day or a season but for life. Jesus came so we might have life by receiving and following Him. The following alone doesn’t save us. We follow because we love Him and surrender to Him as Lord. But make no mistake, following Him is going to require a little work on our part. If the birth of Christ fills you with a sense of wonder, then let that wonder propel you to a daily walk of surrender and sacrifice to Him.
If the birth of Christ means what it should mean to you, your life will never be the same. The birth of Jesus provides the way for a rebirth in Jesus. Reborn people do not live as dead men. They get about the work of the Father revealed through His Son. Christmas is not a once-a-year celebration for us. It is the launching pad for a life lived daily in devotion to Him.