Christmas Death

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Who would you die for? Your spouse or kids? Maybe a sibling or your parents? Someone you love, for sure, right? But what if you were asked to die for someone who hated you, mocked and reviled your very name? What if you were asked to die for someone who wished you didn't even exist? I don't know about you, but I would not be willing to die for someone like that.
                               
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The Christmas season is in full swing at our house; the tree is up, cookies will be baked this weekend, presents are hidden away, the children eagerly open a new window in the advent calendar every evening. But many people dread this time of year. So much work and effort, so much money and time spent, and for what? A big mess to clean up, kids on a sugar high from all those cookies, and nothing but an endless, dark winter ahead and a feeling of emptiness and post-holiday let-down. Bleh.

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How would you like it if you gave Christmas gifts to your friends and loved ones; gifts that you put a lot of effort, time and even money into, and they threw it back in your face? Here you had put your heart on your sleeve and invested in another person, only to have them laugh and scorn your gift. Maybe they even shook their fist at you in anger. I don't know about you, but I would cross them off my gift list for next year.

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My kids are eagerly anticipating Christmas: the Christmas party with extended family, the Christmas Eve service at church, Christmas dinner with fancy food and place settings, and of course, presents! And all those are good things, but hold little meaning beyond themselves; and this is what leads to the post (and pre) season blahs.

You see, we can't really find deep, abiding joy at Christmas without pondering the sorrow of God over our sin. We can't fully appreciate and enjoy the birth of a baby without considering the death of one Man. All the trappings of Christmas are empty and  lifeless without considering a Gift that was given; a gift wrapped in rags and laid in a feeding trough, tied not with a bow, but with a Cross.

And when we tie these two events together, the manger and the Cross, the gift is complete and perfect; it is finished before it began. The gift is not a baby, but God Himself, wrapped in human flesh, sent to die for people who mocked and scorned Him, who shook their fists and Him and wished He didn't exist. I was that person, and yet He gave me Himself, not because I deserved it, or wanted it, but because it was just what I needed. I needed it more than anything this world can offer. And, unlike most Christmas presents, it never gets used up, never goes out of style or breaks, and is always a perfect fit.

So deck the halls, and sing carols, trim the tree and bake cookies and wrap presents. Celebrate the most wonderful, imperishable, Gift of them all. Celebrate not only the birth of a Baby, but His death as well; for in that death is life. In that death, I found my life. Merry Christmas.





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