Today is December 1st of 2011! That means only 24 days until Christmas! Over the last couple years, Christmas has taken on a whole new meaning for me... I feel strange making a "list of all the gifts I want or "need". I am realizing that Christmas is SO MUCH MORE that buying gifts, getting gifts, the great food, or the warm, cozy feeling we get when we put up our decorations - not that all that stuff is bad! It's great! But I think we have lost site of what Christmas truly is. It is about the day Jesus Christ was born.
WAIT A SECOND.. Yes, I said when Jesus Christ was born!!! Isn't that just amazing!? We hear this over and over, ever single year we hear about this, about this baby that was born in a manger.. and grew up to be the savior of the world...etc. No! It is not etc., Jesus Christ was born for YOUR sins, to save YOU, to love YOU! This should not be taken to lightly! How can we hear this and not be moved? Not have unspeakable joy!?
I hope and pray that our focus takes a 360 degree turn this year, and that our eyes our open to the miricale that happened on that day in the stables.
"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he WILL save his people from their sins."
- Matthew 1:21