My friend, Rachael, posted this on Facebook yesterday:
We’d made our fifth and final stop on Christmas Day. It was late, Chris and I were exhausted, and the kids were still basking in the glow of present-opening.
I sighed, “Well, did we learn anything today?”
Andrew quickly spoke up from the back of the van. “We sure have a lot of family that loves us.”
I swallowed back tears. Yes, the presents were awesome. They were so thoughtful and so appreciated. But at the end of the day, my wish was that they would recognize that the real gift is that they are loved.
And they got it! They felt it. They were moved by it.
“Yes, we certainly do,” I replied, feeling the warmth of gratitude in my own heart.
Love is a big part of the story of Christmas so we are thankful when our children understand. The reason we show our friends and family love at Christmas is because of God’s expression of love in the birth of His son. It was out of His great love for us and with the purpose of our salvation that God sent His Son into the World as a baby – knowing what His fate on earth would be.
“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus , because he will save his people from their sins.” – Matthew 1:21
“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. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” – John 3:16-19
So, as we consider how much God loves us this Christmas, let us consider what He wants us to do with that love…
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. – 1 John 3:16-18
We cannot focus in on the story of Jesus’ birth without considering His command that we love one another. The two are discussed side by side over and over again: God loved us enough to give us Jesus therefore we need to show that kind of love to the world around us – a Christmas kind of love.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. – 1 John 4:7-21
Lord, give us opportunities today to show your love to those around us. Fill our hearts with a Christmas kind of love so that we can love others with a love that comes from You. Amen.