"A Christmas Reflection"

Christmas has come at last!  Children everywhere have been holding their breath for what has seemed to them to be ages upon ages of waiting, their hearts pumping and their eyes shining as they waited for all the glory of Christmas morning to be unveiled! 

In an instant, presents under the tree are seized and their wrappings and trappings shredded.  In an instant, all those things hidden beneath are revealed for what they are, received and enjoyed inasmuch as they are desirable to those to whom they have been given. 

Childhood should be the learning-lab for what we as adults come to expect in our spiritual lives.  Little children are far less interested in maintaining a restrained sense of dignity, suppressing their joy of wonder and discovery as they tear through paper and boxes to get to the blessings beneath.  Nor has worldly cynicism yet set in to steal away the thrill of opening one's present. 

Oh, that we would anticipate as eagerly the unwrapping of God’s gift of love in our everyday living!  The work of Jesus on the Cross has opened up to us all the riches of heaven, clearing the way for an overabundance of God’s blessings in everyday life, particularly the blessing of knowing Him! 

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God!  And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1a). 

Make yourself ready then to receive the good things of God!  And what are those "good things"?  Material possessions?  Not really.  Good health?  As wonderful as health is, He's got something better than that.  Friends and family?  Perhaps.  But if you have found yourself all alone, bereft either physically or emotionally of close relationships and companionship, the Lord has something even grander and far more eternal in store for you. 

Namely, fellowship with Himself through the forgiveness of sin if you repent and turn in faith to Christ Jesus; peace as you cease to fret and fume over troubles and circumstances and let Him lead the way through life's tricky paths; joy as you celebrate the new life He gives to you through His Son as well as open access to the Father through Jesus Christ; and finally hope as you believe that God, Who is forever faithful and true, is ruling all things in Creation to their appointed end according to His ultimate will and that you have a special place in His grand design. 

“…Be encouraged in heart and united in love so that you may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that you may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in Whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (from Colossians 2:2-3). 

Are you rich?   You are rich indeed if you have placed your faith for salvation in Christ.  It may seem that so many of the gifts of God in your life are still wrapped and under the tree (so to speak) but in His time He will have you unwrap these gems of experiencing the significance of His love as He reveals in new ways His presence, protection and providence for your life. 

And ultimately, when He calls home His children, those who have placed their faith in Christ, there will be yet another great “unwrapping”… “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). 

This Christmas season, although you have busily unwrapped or watched others unwrap their Christmas gifts, make sure that you do not forget to carefully and wondrously “unwrap” the package of each new day by trusting that there is something of great value within it for you from God.  The greatest gift of all is the love of God Himself, expressed in the giving of His Son to an ungrateful people in a lowly stable so that He could die in place of those who were (and are) guilty. 

Because He came, because He died, and because He rose from the dead, we can trust that the gift that He promises us in the Bible is one of unparalleled joy.  So may your heart be ready to embrace that gift and experience it in its fullness this Christmas season. 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him" (John 3:16-17 NIV). 

(Thom Mollohan and his family have ministered in southern Ohio the past 14 ½  years and is the  author of The Fairy Tale Parables:  Classic Fairy Tales Pointing to God's Love and Truth.  He is the pastor of Pathway Community Church and may be reached for comments or questions by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).