In the movie, A Charlie Brown Christmas, the frustrated director, Charlie Brown, asks the question if anyone can tell him the real meaning of Christmas.  His friend Linus recites Luke 2:10-14, And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.  Yes, even a cartoon character, Linus, knows the true meaning of Christmas. 

 

     Coming from a retail career I can honestly say that Christmas equates to big sales!  It truly has become too commercialized.  People are more interested to hear about their profit from Christmas than to hear about the Prophet from Bethlehem.  The story of the baby born in a manger is becoming a side story that just seems to happen this time each year.  Even for the many that know it is the story about baby Jesus, how many really know the whole Story?   How many really connect this baby in the manger, as the very same person that placed every single star in the sky?  This is the very same person that synchronized our planets orbit to plan our days, weeks, months and seasons, and then He humbled Himself to be born of a virgin birth in a lowly manger.

 

The Apostle John spent every day of Jesus’ ministry with Him, and John tells us that, John 1:1-3, this Jesus existed at the beginning of time, He is the Word that was with God, and He was God.  It goes on to say that God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through Him.  In Colossians 1:15-17, He is the image of the invisable God,…..He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.  Isaiah 7:14, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel,” which means God with us. 

 

Those are just some of the verses that prophesy His coming, and some that confirm His coming.  The story of the virgin birth has overwhelming Biblical evidence that this child in the manger was the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, fully divine and fully human.  As Isaiah stated, He is God with us.

 

Why did God have to come to earth in the womb of the Virgin Mary?  Why didn’t God just wipe us out and start over again like He did with Noah?....Because man alone could not defeat the death sentence that Satan held over us.  Death had to be defeated by a sinless Man, the Son of God who was both perfect deity and perfect human.  Mankind is born with sinful hearts and sinful thoughts always, but when God became man in the incarnation, only He was born sin free.  And with His 33 years of the human sin free life He would live, He would be able to defeat death and redeem those who believe and follow Him. 

 

So when we celebrate Christmas each and every year that God gives us, we should understand and realize that even though He chose to make a humble entrance into the human race that He created, we should remember the rest of the story.  He fully chose to come as a sacrifice to save the creations that He loved.  He fully chose to come and suffer a horrible crucifixion to save the creations that He loved…..For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. 

 

God’s love for us provided a way, the ONLY way, for us to gain Eternal Life, through His only Son Jesus Christ, who paid the full price for us to be free from condemnation when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.      “But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”

 

The Real Meaning of Christmas is not in the presents but in His Presence in us.