Christmas morning isn’t the final destination, you know? It’s more like our starting point. Long after the presents are unwrapped and the Christmas candy is eaten, the hope of Christmas remains. Jesus didn’t stay in a manger; He didn’t remain a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. His story (and ours) is so much bigger than what happened that first Christmas morn. The gospel is the true miracle of Christmas. We want you to see the gospel clearly in every second of Christ’s story.
Christmas is just the beginning of the most wonderful story ever lived.
Christmas is just the beginning of the most wonderful story ever lived. It’s more like the “once upon a time” than the “happily ever after.” This year, we want you to go deeper, to ask the Lord to help you see the true meaning of Christmas. Sure, look over the rim of Christ’s crib and gaze at the miracle baby for awhile, but don’t stop there. Look forward to Christ’s sinless life. See Him hung on a cross for the sins of mankind. Watch Him rise in victory from an empty tomb, and remind yourself that grace is the gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving. Like all epic tales, the deeper story of Christmas includes romance, a villain, and a fight to set all things right. It’s too big to be boiled down to Christmas card sentiments or a single Christmas carol lyric. But it is a story worth reading and rereading, worth telling and retelling, worth living and reliving. Next week our blog will be dedicated to telling the Christmas story in reverse. Beginning with the resurrection, we will trace Christ’s life backward all the way to His supernatural birth announcement. We’d love to give you a head start. Would you take some time in the coming days to read the following passages of Scripture? You may not have thought of these as Christmas verses before, but they are! This is the reason Christ came.
The Resurrection
The Cross
The Sermon on the Mount
Christ’s Birth
A Savior Foretold
We know this is a busy time of year. Our default is to get caught up in the hustle and bustle and miss the reason for it all. But Christ was born so that we might live. The lights on every Christmas tree aren’t just there to twinkle. They remind us that Jesus is the light of the world.
The lights on every Christmas tree aren’t just there to twinkle. They remind us that Jesus is the light of the world.
Take some time to read the Christmas story in reverse. Then join us back on the blog next week as we look at how His story transforms ours.