God's Truth Still Shines This Christmas Eve

This ornament has hung on our Christmas tree for years and years. From the front, it's just a green evergreen tree decorated in gold ornaments and garland. Very pretty, but very plain and very simple.

This is how many people see Christmas. There's a tree to decorate, presents to shop for, meals to make and people to greet. Some of them will go to the Christmas Eve service tonight, not for a blessing or to worship the newborn King with their church family, but because it's what they do every year before they drive around and look at Christmas lights. It's just one more item on their holiday bucket list, something to take a picture of and post online.

At the bottom of the tree, it reads: For over 2000 years, Christmas has come and gone. The sparkle and the razzle-dazzle keep us enthralled for a few weeks, but then we're back to the everyday grind come January. The celebration gets this huge build up, but it's very short-lived.

But turn the ornament around, and you'll find the power of the Lord's birth.

Yet God's real truth still shines through.

What a powerful statement when it's underlining the bare-bones cross, with the branches lying at its base. The only ornament now is the crown of Christ. This isn't the sparkle and razzle-dazzle the world wants to see. This goes back to Jesus coming to earth as a baby in the manger, but we can't leave Him there. He didn't come to start a religion or to have a day set aside every year to praise Him and give each other presents.

Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son came to earth to die for the sins of the world. That's not a popular idea, even at Christmas, but God's word says that was Jesus' business while He was here. Everything God gave Jesus to do was pointing Him toward Calvary.

I pray that you celebrate Christmas this weekend, reflecting the love and compassion of Jesus Christ on everyone you meet. But I also pray that we'll all turn the ornament around and give praise to the Lord that it didn't stop with the miracle of His birth. After December 25, we ow have to live with the truth that we have a Savior who loved us so much that He would sacrifice Himself so we could have a relationship with God and spend eternity with Him.

That's the truth of God's word, and it still shines through more than 2,000 years later. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!

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