His Beautiful Son

When our daughter Stephanie was dating her husband Jeff, she made him a batch of brownies to take on his trip back to West Virginia. As he traveled, he opened her gift, took a big bite and threw them out the window. There is currently a trail of brownies up Interstate 77, for I’m sure that even the birds had sense enough to stay away from those crumbs. She had followed her grandma’s wonderful recipe, but had missed adding the sugar.

Wouldn’t it be terrible to get to the end of life and realize we missed the sweetest part? Not trying to ruin Christmas for you, but this is how easily tradition can take the place of Truth. There was no little drummer boy, no regretful innkeeper, and the angels spoke, not sang, the words, “Glory to God in the highest!” They were the strong messengers of God, announcing boldly like fans in a football stadium, that God had been born in the flesh. Can you imagine the shouts and praises from this glorious army?!

And even though my nativity scene has wisemen kneeling by the manger, Joseph and Mary were in a house, not a barnyard, when the wisemen found them. Tradition is tricky like that.

So is religion. Religion tells us, “You can do it! You can make a way once you measure up. One more church service and you’ve achieved holiness. Good for you! You can be pleasing to God if you just try harder.”

God says, “No you can’t!”

Christmas is the beautiful Truth that God had a plan from the beginning. It didn’t catch Him by surprise that we cannot meet His holy standard. So He sent His Son.

Suddenly, Christmas makes sense! The perfect Son of God will stand before His Father and cover for us, because He knows we can’t do it ourselves.

And that’s when the angels throw a party: every time someone turns to Christ.

Christmas and Christianity are not about pursuing God. It’s about understanding that He has pursued us. Rest in His love. Trust in His Son. THEN you can love Him with your life. For when we depend on ourselves we’re missing the sweetest part:

His beautiful Son!