Luke 2:1-20
It was the Christmas season of 1947. It had been a tough year on the farm. The boll weevil had been attacking our cotton crop and had reduced the production of our cash crop for the farm. My oldest sister and I went out and found a cedar tree for our Christmas tree that year. We did not have high expectations for Christmas gifts that year. I had put in a request for a football, but I did not know if that would take place. I got up on Christmas morning to find out that I had gotten my dream gift. I was eleven years old and that football brought many years of joy. Many of our neighborhood boys came to our house on Sundays after church to play football for hours on end. I used that football to punt into our pecan trees to bring down the pecans so Mother could use them in her baking. It was a great gift that brought much joy — and I knew that I had gotten that football because someone loved me and wanted to give me the football because of that love. Having the love of parents can get you through the hard times in life.
I want you to think about gifts you have been given because someone loved you. Think about the real source of love that you have experienced from gifts. What did you do with these gifts of love?
God gave each of us the greatest gift out of love for us when he chose to become one of us. In 1885 Christiana G. Rosette wrote the lyrics to the hymn “Love Came Down at Christmas” and David Evans set it to music in 1927. “Love came down at Christmas, love all lovely, love divine. Love was born at Christmas, star and angels gave the sign. Worship we the Godhead, love incarnate, love divine; worship we our Jesus, but wherewith for sacred sign? Love shall be our token, love be yours and love be mine, love to God and all men, love for plea and gift and sign.”
This love is the greatest gift we have been given, and we did nothing to deserve it. In today’s scripture, Luke tells us about the birth of God’s greatest gift to each of us. That night in Bethlehem Mary and Joseph took shelter in a barn. “And while they were there the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger because there was no lodging available for them.”
This greatest gift that any person could have — it came first to a somewhat outcast group: the shepherds. “That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. ‘Don’t be afraid!’, he said, ‘I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people, the Savior, yes the Messiah, the Lord has been born today in the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign. You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth lying in a manger.’ Suddenly the angel was joined by a vast host of others, the armies of heaven praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.’”
What would be your response to this greatest gift that has come to each of us from God’s very heart of love for us? The shepherds made this response to God’s love for them: “When the angels had returned to heaven the shepherds said to each other, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about.’ They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph and there was the baby, lying n a manger. After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherd’s story were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. The shepherds went back to their flocks glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.”
This gift of God’s love changes our lives when we accept it. What are you doing with this gift of love? Do you love God because he has loved you even before you loved him? How has it changed the way you see yourself? How has it changed the way you treat your family, friends, and all the people you come in contact with? Love can make life real.
In the Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams wrote about how the Skin Horse became real. “Being real doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But those things don’t matter at all; because once you are Real you can’t be ugly….you can’t become unreal again. It lasts forever.”
You don’t need to wait until you are old. You can have the greatest gift in the world this Christmas: the saving love that God has given us that came in the birth of Jesus Christ. This love has power to heal your brokenness, for love heals all things. This love will make over your life at any age. Open your life to God’s greatest gift. His love lasts for always and forever.
