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Max Lucado reminds us that in this time of taking your tree down, packing up
the Christmas decorations for another year and sitting down and documenting
everything for next year, my prayer is that you sensed the love you received
from God in the form of a tiny little baby and the hope we have in him. Because
at the end of the day, it isn’t about what gift you got from who or what you had
for Christmas dinner, but rather it is whether or not you got the message sent to
us. The package laid in a manger in Bethlehem allows us to live every day as
though it is Christmas.
This is why we love Christmas. The love God showed us and the hope we
found in a baby laying in a manger. The event invites us to believe the wildest
promises: God became one of us so we could become one with him. He did
away with every barrier, fence, sin, bent, debt and grave. Anything that might
keep us from him was demolished. He only awaits our word to walk through the
door.
Invite him in. Escort him to the seat of honor and pull out his chair. Clear the
table; clear the calendar. Call the kids and neighbors.
Christmas is here. Christ is here.
So, my question to you is, “What did you learn from Christmas this year?”
Perhaps you’ve discovered that your life does resemble a Bethlehem stable.
Perhaps you’ve knocked on an innkeeper’s door and were turned away. And
perhaps you wondered if God has a place for a person like you.
My prayer is that you learned that love came in the form of a tiny little baby that
was placed in a smelly manger surrounded by barnyard animals. When Christ
was born, so was our hope. That he does have a place for you in a Bethlehem
stable. In the manger, God loves you; through the cross, God saves you. And
those are the things that you learned from Christmas 2023 and for that I say...
Amen.

Blessings,
Jay T. Janke