Read: John 3:16–21
Since I grew up in a non-Christian family, I didn’t celebrate Christmas as a child. But once when I was young, my siblings and I, together with a few neighborhood kids, decided to have a Christmas gift exchange. I don’t know where we got the idea—maybe from all the TV shows we’d been watching.
We put our names into a bag, and each of us picked the name of someone to buy a present for. We decided we liked this tradition. We didn’t yet realize the perfect gift had been given to us 2,000 years ago by God our Creator. Charles Wesley captured this in his hymn “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing.” He wrote of Jesus, “Light and life to all He brings, / Risen with healing in His wings.”
The Bible tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16 NKJV). Why did God give us his Son, and what does that mean for us? As Wesley wrote, “Born to raise the sons of earth, / Born to give them second birth.”
As a teenager, I heard about Jesus—the one born to give us “second birth”—and believed in Him as my Savior. Christmas is special to me now because I understand its meaning—it’s a celebration of God’s perfect gift, Jesus Christ.
God isn’t a mystical force out there; He’s a personal God who extends His love to people of all nations and socioeconomic classes. And this personal God expressed His love for me by dying for me.
“Glory to the newborn King!”
What Christmas traditions do you celebrate?
How might they remind you of Jesus’ birth?
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