Ever wonder why God would become a man, to be born in such a lowly manner, and let us treat Him the way we did? Ever wonder why Jesus would, while existing “before all things” and holding “first place in everything” (Colossians 1:17,18); would agree to come to earth as a baby, suffer the abuse He suffered, and die such a painful death? If we continue reading in Colossians we read: “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”

How awesome is that?

This all happened to reconcile us to God. The tough reality is that God makes it very clear, in His word, that He is justifiably angry at humanity’s sin. All of us have sinned — and do so repeatedly. Yet He loves us sinners enough that He gave His own Son to live on earth, die on a cross, and bear sin in His own body, suffering the full weight of God’s wrath — wrath deserved by us all. Jesus paid the penalty to restore peace between God and sinners. It could not have been done any other way.

So Christmas is primarily a celebration of God’s love toward mankind. God never wanted religion (rituals, ceremony, tradition, self-righteousness, law), but an everlasting personal relationship in Truth — with us! Not emotional, time-bound, fashionable hypes, nor “visits” only in churches, but a genuine living commitment to Him. He is after our hearts!

I don’t want you to get lost in the wide scope of it all, so let me sum it up.

He trades Heaven for Earth and enters our world to set things straight. The awesome God of the universe became human and lived here on earth among us in shared life and engaged mankind. Because God’s human creation is made of flesh and blood, Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in human form — a baby in a manger. For only a human being could He die, and only by dying could He break the power of satan, who had the power of death. Don’t you see? Only the Son of the living God could wrestle the power of death out of the hand of satan, so that God could be reconnected to all creation — to you — in a very personal one-on-one relationship.

His heart cries out, “You may have turned away from Me, but I’m not turning away from you. I love you so much and you are so important to Me that I will go to extraordinary lengths to reclaim you again as my child and my friend” God’s divine passion to redeem you by entering our world and dying for us isn’t based on anything we have done or could do in the future. It is purely the result of His incredible grace. Regardless of all we’ve done or haven’t done, He offers us grace. God pursues you, God accepts you completely, and in spite of your sin, He provides a way back to Him.

So during this time of Christmas you won’t find God’s gift under a tree, in a manger or on a cross. To find His gift we must look beyond a tree, beyond the manger and beyond the cross — because Jesus Christ is alive. We must never forget that we have never sunken too far from our Savior’s grasp of redeeming love to receive this gift. He is always reaching for us, even when we aren’t reaching for Him.

So receive God’s gift of His Son, Jesus Christ — love in action…this is the Christmas message!