Remember season's true spirit
Rev. Roscoe Perry, First Mount Carmel Baptist Church
StaffWith all that is going on this season it is easy to get lost in the drama and forget the real reason for this season. Commercialism is very powerful indeed. Many of the people who advertise may be interested only in the increase of their profit margin.
Christmas should be a powerful time. This is a time when people focus on the goodness of a very powerful God who has been merciful and kind.
It is often overlooked but Christmas is a great love message. God had to really love us for this season to exist. He draped himself in human flesh, took a nine-month train and got off in a small town to begin a human life that would be full of rejection and pain. He subjected Himself to the pain of earthly presence for the purpose of all people. And the story gets really sad when you consider that the very ones that He sacrificed for were the ones who facilitated his crucifixion.
Some say, "Why do we need to recognize His birth?" Well, He could not die until He was born. The birth should be celebrated because it is an awesome sign of humility. God chose to become more like us, so that we could be more like God. He who had created the heavens and the earth so humbled Himself to identify with His creation. He who has the power to create galaxies withjust a thought elected to come in the form of a baby to set a broken relationship back in order.
Every time I think of Christmas it reminds me that God came in human form so that He could better identify with us. It encourages me, knowing that God knows how I feel.
And why did He do this? Love! Christmas is a love message. In John 3:16, that most recognized passage, it is clear that "God so loved the world that He sent His Son ..." For example, it is one thing to be hot. But when a person says, "I am so hot," that brings intensity to the statement. Not just "so" hot. God "so" loved us. That brings intensity to that statement; He did not just give us a shallow love, no, He greatly loved us. He intensely loves us. He deeply loves all of humanity to the point that He put on flesh and lived with us which is the meaning of one of His names, Emmanuel, God with us.
The great thing about it all is that He is not just with us on Dec. 25 but He is with us always. Isn't it good to know that God loves us and is with us with every breath we take? And even when we stop breathing, guess what, we His children find ourselves with Him, beholding even more of his presence. So let us praise God from whom all blessing flow, praise Him all creatures here below, for without doubt He is worthy of all praise!