“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren, every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” James 1:16-17

Good and Perfect Gift

Christmas brings all sorts of festivities, programs, music, foods and sweets, performances, shopping, cleaning, wrapping, and decorating. There are lights and parades and carols and jolly ol’ St. Nick. Don’t forget elves and stockings and reindeer with red noses. We do love to celebrate Christmas! I am not knocking any of these things, but at the same time, I don’t want to miss the true Christmas, the eternal reality of a divine love expressed so miraculously and so tenderly in the coming of the Christ Child.

“…Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God” (1 John 4:2). What makes Christmas so marvelous is that Jesus came in the flesh as that wee babe of the stable. Do you sense the wonder of that moment? That night changed history forever. That expression of the Father’s love unto helpless and hopeless mankind opened eternity for us.

“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9). I see Christmas all over these verses. God made His love known in flesh and blood terms that we could understand. Flesh and blood that we could see with our eyes and look upon and hear with our ears and handle with our hands. He became as we are, so that we might be changed from glory to glory into His image. He was born unto Mary that we might live through Him.

This is life! This is the delight of the ages. Jesus, the matchless gift to humanity.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15) Amen.