Tuesday, December 7, 2021

No Christmas Anywhere Without the Christian Message

December is the month churches decorate their sanctuaries and classrooms to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It's the season for singing carols and putting on nativity plays. More people than usual typically attend church on Christmas Eve. Youth and children's leaders remind their charges that the message of Christmas is that God loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son and that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. That is the Christian gospel in a nutshell, recorded in the Bible in John 3:16. Most children who grow up attending a church have that verse memorized.  Perhaps a good thing to talk about with the people in your church or youth group is what it would be like if Jesus had not been born. Questions like the following may be helpful.

What if there had been no baby in the manger some 2021 years ago? 

Would we have a vision for peace on earth and good will to men if the angel had not proclaimed it to the shepherds? 

Would the descendants of ancient Israel still be awaiting the coming of the Messiah today if Herod had not interrogated the magi when they arrived at his palace after having followed the star to ask where the prophetic scriptures predicted they would be able to find the newborn King of the Jews?

We would not be scurrying around spending money to buy gifts for people. We would not be decorating our houses with lights and garlands. We would not be making cookies, stuffing turkeys, and baking pies. There would be no Notre Dame to restore in Paris, no Westminster Abbey in London, and no Crystal Cathedral in California. No pope, no prayer mountain in South Korea, and no Salvation Army. No Santa Claus, Charlie Brown's Christmas, or Grinch. 

In actual fact, there would be no Christmas anywhere without the Christian message. But since there was a baby born in Bethlehem (it is a historical fact, documented in ancient Roman and Jewish records), and since that child grew up fulfilling the Jewish prophecies about the Messiah, and since the Christian message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ has been turning the world (and individual's lives) upside down for two millennia, perhaps there are other claims and prophecies left for wise men to contemplate today.


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