This devotional came from Greg Laurie, a pastor in Southern California. I've struggled for years to keep the real reason for Christmas totally in focus. This perfectly expresses what I've known and felt for a while now. I challenge you to read, reflect, imagine, and respond!
I heard a story
about a little girl who noticed that her mom was getting really stressed out
around Christmas. Everything was bothering her mom, and she was very irritable.
Evening came and the mom bathed the little girl, got her ready for bed, put her
under the covers, and had her say her prayers. She would usually pray the Lord's
Prayer. But on this particular evening, she amended it a little bit. Her
petition went something like this: "Father, forgive us our Christmases, as we
forgive those who Christmas against us."
That is what happens when we
lose focus of the real meaning of Christmas, isn't it? We get so caught up in
the busyness of the season that sometimes we forget the wonder of it all: that
deity took on humanity, that God became a man. Scripture sums it up well in 2
Corinthians 8:9, which says: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His
poverty might become rich" (NKJV). Jesus literally went from the
throne of Heaven to a simple little cave or stable.
Can you imagine what
must have gone through Mary's mind that day when the angel Gabriel appeared to
her and told her she would be the mother of the Messiah? Her head must have been
swimming. "What about Joseph? What are people going to say?" But God had it all
put together, because the time was just right in every way.
But there was
one small detail: The Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, as Scripture
prophesied (see Micah 5:2). So the Lord touched the mind of a little man who was
big in his own mind. His name was Caesar and, at this particular time in
history, he was the most powerful man on Earth. One day, Caesar gave a decree
that all of the world should be taxed. In reality, he was nothing more than a
pawn in the hand of God. The Lord needed Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem, so He
moved events.
So Mary and Joseph had to make the difficult journey to
Bethlehem, which was especially perilous for a woman who was as far along in her
pregnancy as Mary was. But they did make it, and there the miraculous birth of
Christ took place, just as Scripture said it would.
This little baby grew up quickly and, although we would love
to know more about his boyhood, the Bible offers only a few details. But one day
in the synagogue in Nazareth, as the custom was, the time had come for Jesus to
read. He walked to the front of the synagogue, opened up the scroll, and began
to read from Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has
anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord. (Luke 4:18–19 NLT)
When He had finished,
He sat down and said, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (verse
21). He had declared himself the Messiah. His public ministry had
begun.
This One who was sent from God was always in perfect sync with the
Father. While He spoke with the learned spiritual leaders, He always had time
for the outcasts of society—people like the woman at the well and the tax
collector, Zacchaeus. People like you. People like me.
His ministry on
Earth was only a few years, and then He was crucified. You can be sure that as
He hung there on the cross, where all of the sin of humanity was placed upon
Him, this was God's most painful moment. But then it was finished. Jesus rose
again from the dead and, after a time, ascended back into Heaven, promising to
come back to this earth. And we eagerly await that day.
This Jesus who
was born in a manger, who walked this earth, who was crucified, and who rose
again, is not some mere historical figure, although He was that. He is alive,
and He is still in the business of changing lives.
That is the reason He
came: to put us in touch with God, to forgive us of all of our sins, and to give
our lives purpose and meaning.
~Greg Laurie~