Christmas is all about love!

There is one main  purpose during the Christmas season, and it is love.  Everything about Christmas is motivated by love.  We give presents out of love.  We cook special cookies, and meals, out of love.  We decorate our houses to show our love of Christmas to our neighbors.  We gather with friends and family for parties to share our love.  The greatest love shown at Christmas is God’s love for Jesus, and thus also His love for us.  God gave us Jesus, to save us.  God gave us the gift of his Son.

In Matthew 3:17, when Jesus was baptized, God spoke from heaven, “This is my Son whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  God made a great sacrifice of his greatly loved Son, to show us how much God loves us.  He sent Jesus down to Earth, away from his home in heaven.  At the birth of Jesus, no one but God realized the sacrifice Jesus would later make on the cross.  Everyone celebrated his birth, from his parents and the shepherds, to the angels and the wise men.  We, too, celebrate his birth.  Every year at Christmas, we remember the love of God, who gave us Jesus, born as a helpless baby, who would one day save the world.

We can’t ever match the gift God gave us at that first Christmas.  We can remember it, and celebrate it, by focusing on Jesus during the Christmas season, and putting love into all our preparations and parties and gifts.  I tend not to make a big fuss about Christmas, but now I can see, that all the fuss is really about love.         I can choose to see love in all the Christmas activities, instead of stress and bother and commercialism.  If I can put love into each gift I give, and put love into each casserole I cook, and put love into each ornament I hang, then I can begin to know how much God loves us, and I can share that love with others.

Although some people think Christmas is all about gifts, I can see now that it really is about love.  If I put love into everything I do during the Christmas season, then I am honoring Jesus.  So let’s put love back into our Christmas celebrations.  That’s really what Jesus wants.   In John 13:34-35, Jesus says “A new command I give you:  Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Merry Christmas, and may your Christmas season be blessed with much love!

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