A Christmas Tradition is Born

(This is the 2^nd of a 4 part series on “Memories of Christmas”.)

Luke 2:1-7

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%202%3A1-7&version=NIV;NLT

 

Christmas traditions are generally carried over from generation to generation; but some just happen.

 

About ten years ago we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church. Afterwards, we thought it would be fun to drive around and look at some lights. Eventually we started getting hungry.

 

Have you ever tried to find a restaurant open on Christmas Eve, e.g. The Christmas Story? The only one we found was Lee Garden – a Chinese restaurant. The food was great. However, Chinese karaoke on Christmas Eve was a little strange. But that night a new Christmas tradition was born for our family.

 

There are a multitude of Christmas traditions that families observe. Some are fantasy, like Santa Claus. While others are based in fact, like the Nativity scene. Even then, the Nativity scene of today is a stark contrast to the reality.

 

It must have been a crazy time in the young lives of Mary and Joseph. An angel had visited Mary and told her that she would become pregnant through the Holy Spirit. If that wasn’t hard enough to believe, he also informed her that her son would reign over Jacob’s descendants (Israel) forever; that his kingdom would never end.

 

How could she explain this to Joseph since she was a virgin; to her parents who had raised her to be a righteous Jew; to people in the village who might even choose to stone her for her apparent sin? But her relative Elizabeth understood.

When Mary went to visit her, Elizabeth’s baby leapt in her womb.

 

And now, when she was almost due, she and Joseph had to make a three day trip to Bethlehem for a census. Of course, when they arrived the city was bursting at the seams. As a result, there was no room in the inn, so Mary gave birth to the baby in a stable where he was laid in a feeding trough.

 

My family will never forget about that first visit to the Lee Garden Restaurant and how our Christmas tradition was born. In the same way, we will never forget that our celebration of Christmas was born in Bethlehem with the gift of God’s only son as an expression of His pure, unconditional love for us.

 

⁹ God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. ¹⁰ This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.           1 John 4:9-10 NLT

 

 

if you click on this link, you can listen to a beautiful song about God's love seen through the gift of his only son. It is called “How Many Kings”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYe9sWYKdo

  

(If God has spoken to you through this blog, please feel free to share the link with others on social media.)

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Christmas is Magic

John 1:1-18 & 29

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201%3A1-18%20&version=NIV;MSG

 

Christmas is magic. At least that’s how it seemed to me when I was a little boy. What other time of the year could you go to bed that night and the following morning find a tree brightly lit and decorated with gifts all around it? It was magic. But what makes it magical?

 

My parents had a nativity scene that one of us kids would place under the tree each

year. We would take our turn to decorate it as we saw fit. Wherever we wanted, we could place the shepherds, the wise men, the animals, but most importantly, the baby Jesus, Joseph and Mary.

 

Christmas is magic indeed, but not in the way an 8 year old boy thought. Listen to what John wrote:

 

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… ¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.            NIV

 

I like how The Message phrases verse 14:

 

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.

 

The Word, that is Jesus, became flesh and blood and moved into your neighborhood; into the house next door to you; maybe even into your house.

 

That’s more than the magic that I thought of as a little boy. When the creator takes residence in his creation, that’s supernatural! Who can do that? More importantly, why would he want to do that? John gives us the answer to these questions later in chapter 1.

 

²⁹ “Here he is, God’s Passover Lamb! He forgives the sins of the world!     MSG

 

Christmas is about the Word who became flesh; who moved into your neighborhood so that your sins could be forgiven. Christmas is about the Lamb of God who was sacrificed to make it all happen.

 

That’s a lot for a little baby to carry on his shoulders. You might even say… that it’s magic.

 

 

 

 

(If God has spoken to you through this devotional, please feel free to share it with others.)

 

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