SOUTH LYON, MI – Christmas is upon us again. Even as you are reading this, no doubt many of you are still wrapping your head around what to get that significant other. Or you are taking inventory to make sure each child has the same number of gifts. Isn’t this a wonderful time of the year? Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year. Nothing was more momentous as a child than waking up on Christmas morning to a tree skirted with packages all wrapped in various colors. It was one of the few times that our family would get together without any fussing or fighting. It was truly a time of peace and goodwill for all the Meauxs. Yet, as soon as those gifts were passed around and opened, we would go to our predetermined corners of the house to play privately with our newfound toys.
Many decades later, I couldn’t tell you which public land dump to find those discarded toys that meant so much to me those first few days following Christmas. What I am able to tell you are the many joyous memories of Christmas that I have. When people ask me what I want for Christmas, I hear my grandparents in my own voice when I answer, “I only want my family to be together.” I want you to think about that last term…TOGETHER.
I believe many of you reading this will spend Christmas at some point with family, friends, neighbors or coworkers. You will be together with others because of Christmas. So, while you labor looking for the perfect gift, the funniest greeting cards, or decorating your house, do not fail to take advantage of the curiosity and openness of all those that you will spend time with this Christmas.
Christmas has a tendency to cause people to drop their guard toward spiritual matters. We all have a great opportunity to give the only gift that will never be discarded or found in a trash dump. In fact, this gift has eternal significance. It is the gift of the Gospel. What better time to explain to your loved ones and friends that the greatest gift ever given for mankind is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ did not simply come to give us a sweet and humbling birth story. His narrative continues in that Jesus Christ loves humanity so much that He stooped down from His Holy throne to walk with mankind. He loves humanity so much that He walked in our shoes and experienced temptations, struggles and this broken world in which we also live. He loves humanity so much that He shared daily the will of God the Father with all that He would meet. He loves humanity so much that He voluntarily, from eternity past, marched Himself to the cross to be offered on the altar to appease a holy, righteous and just God who must punish the disobedience of mankind. Jesus Christ took the full brunt of God’s wrath and was found worthy. Because three days later, God revealed His pleasure with Jesus’ offering and raised Him from the dead.
Jesus came to earth in lowly form, but now He sits on the throne of all creation. As sweet as it is to see the many nativity scenes, and to observe little children acting out the Christmas narrative, we must not stop at His birth. Jesus Christ is fully grown, fully glorified and ruling the known universe. Take time this Christmas season to share with family and friends the greatest news that mankind longs to hear, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jason Meaux is Lead Pastor of FBC South Lyon. He recently moved to Michigan from Mobile, Alabama where he served as Pastor and many other ministry positions over the years. He is married to Aimee and they share three children.