The Reason for the Season

This will be my last post before signing off for the Holidays, but before I do, I wanted to explain something that has been greatly distorted these days- Christmas.

For many, Christmas is a time to give and get gifts. For others, Christmas is all about spending time with family. For most children,they look forward to waking up Christmas morning and seeing what Santa Clause brought. No matter why you look forward to Christmas there is something we all can agree on.

We all call this special time of year Christmas.

But you know, it is by no chance or irony that the holiday we call Christmas includes the name Christ.
Its because the real Christmas Story is about the celebration of a baby, born in a barn many years ago. This baby's name was Jesus, who was born of a virgin.
How can this be?

This child was no ordinary baby who came into the world to live. This baby was the Son of God, who came to this earth so that He could die.
WOW! This seems a little crazy right, why would someone live in order to die? And why did He want to die?

This is where the Christmas Story gets even more mind bogging- Christ came to die for YOU! Yes, you!!!!
How many people do you know that would die for you?
How many people do you know that would go to jail for you?
How many people do you know that would give up a day for you?

You probably couldn't think of many people to fit these categories, so why would a baby who was born long ago grow to be a man and die for you? Because He loves you! Christ loves you so much that He wants you to go to heaven, the thing is you can't get there because heaven is a perfect place where any one who has done anything wrong cannot go. So Christ, because of His love for you took YOUR punishment upon Himself and died so that you might have a way to heaven. THIS was the reason for that first Christmas, so that Christ could be born and make a way for you to be saved!

Praise the Lord for this gift that He gave us so many years ago. Who would have thought that the reason for the season would be found lying in a manger in a barn so many years ago?