A Promised Child Inspires Uncommon Faith (Hebrews 11:32-40)

The True Meaning of Christmas
It’s 2 days before Christmas and you know what that means? People frantically looking for last-minute gifts and the veritable plethora of inconsequential college football bowl games. It’s gotten ridiculous. There are 32 bowl games. We all know only one of them matters and the BCS Championship game won’t be played until January 7. The other 31, 5 of which have already happened, mean little to the college football landscape except extra money to participating teams. Do we really need a Poinsettia Bowl, an Emerald Bowl, and a PapaJohn’s.com bowl? Excited? Neither am I. I can’t get into watching two teams that each managed to lose half their games slug it out on December 30 in the Independence Bowl. 32 bowl games just waters it down.

It is kind of like how many people today approach the Christmas season. Not wanting to offend, many join the “Happy Holidays” bandwagon and lump all the seasonal holidays together. Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Kwanza, maybe even Festivus for the Rest of us (The fake holiday Jerry Seinfeld’s TV father invented). Combining them all together gives the impression that they are all of equal importance or significance. Waters it down. No matter what anyone thinks, says or does Christmas has one true meaning: It’s about God sending His Son to be the Savior of the world, God making a way for humanity to be forgiven and reconciled to Himself. That’s the true meaning of Christmas. For us, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ should not be just another holiday. It towers above the rest in significance and importance and ought to be something we remember every day.

God bless you as you remember our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ today.