Can you remember the best gift you’ve ever received? One of my most memorable gifts was the year I was 6 years old. There was a particular Barbie doll I really wanted. I asked Santa for it, I talked about it all the time, and waited in anticipation of Christmas morning when I would look under the tree to see the gift I wanted most sitting there in all its glory. I got up that Christmas morning, full of excitement, and took in the wonderful sight of our beautifully lit tree all aglow with presents surrounding it.
As I took it in and opened all my presents, I began to get concerned. I didn’t see that doll anywhere. Did Santa forget? Did he lose my list? As only a six year old would do, I politely voiced my concern, wondering if it was just hiding. My parents hid their looks of concern and were quick on their feet, because you see, they knew that present had arrived but were just as confused as to where it was. They thought it was wrapped and under the tree.
We all began to go on a scavenger hunt to look for the missing present. We looked everywhere! As it turned out, “Santa” liked to store his presents in our attic and apparently this particular gift fell out on its way to our tree and landed on the steps to the attic.
As my hope was almost completely gone, I headed to the stairs and to my delight, there it was! My parents made up a story about why it was on the steps, but I was so excited to see the gift that I jumped for joy!
As much as I wanted that gift that year, looking back now, I’m not sure I would have even remembered this particular gift many years later had it not been such an unusual adventure. But because of its unusual placement and timing, I can still picture the toy sitting right where I found it on the stairs.
That very first Christmas so long ago, God sent us a gift as well that came in a most unusual way. He sent us a baby wrapped in rags, sleeping in a trough in a dirty animal manger. This was not the usual place to look for a gift or a baby. This was the gift that the people of God had been waiting on in anticipation for hundreds of years. Generation after generation prayed and longed for the gift of the Messiah to arrive. Then one day over 2000 years ago, God sent Jesus, a baby born to a virgin.
While Jesus’ arrival was unusual and not what they had expected, it was no mistake. God was very intentional about how we should receive His gift of love sent from heaven. Even though Jesus was the Messiah and the King of Kings, he was not found born in a palace or in a hospital, no, he was born into the most scandalous and lowest of circumstances. While this might have made it harder for those looking for him to find him; for those who looked to God, he revealed where to find the most amazing gift they’d ever receive.
Every Christmas we look back and remember that first Christmas when love came down for us. We celebrate the greatest gift we have ever been given–the gift of God’s own son, Jesus. As we remember the Christmas story, we are reminded that the whole Bible is a beautiful story of God pursuing us out of His great love for us. How wonderful that God would become flesh for us–to exchange heaven for earth and endure hardship, pain, loss and all this broken world offers. But He did it for us! He loved us so much that he would stop at nothing to draw near to us.
God’s great love sent Jesus for our sake because we are His beloved. He didn’t stay far away, up on high, but he came to us to be Emmanuel, “God with us”. He was always a God who was for us but that wasn’t enough. He wanted us to know the great lengths he would go to be with us, to experience what we experience and in doing so take our sin upon him and transform the world for good! It was in the moment that Jesus appeared that we now know how deeply we are loved because God came for us. It is in God’s immense love for us that we now find our worth.
God loves us infinitely more than we can comprehend. He has wonderful things in store for us that we cannot even imagine; the likes of which we have never seen or heard. It is in Christ that God is revealed and we find our purpose.
The kind of love God offers is unlike any kind of love we can find on this earth. It is a love that surpasses all understanding. That God would go to the ends of the earth and into the depths of hell itself, to save us and redeem us and call us His own, is beyond anything I can imagine.
In this world we don’t experience this kind of love as often as we should, but when we embrace God’s love for us, it changes us from our very core. It changes how we see ourselves and how we see the world. We find a peace and confidence like no other in being the one loved by God.
It is my prayer that this Christmas you will remember the day that love came down for you and for me. His love might show up in the most unusual places but if your heart is turned toward God, He will reveal the greatest gift of all! May the gift of Jesus fill you with great joy, knowing that God draws near to each of us to bring us life and show us His deep and abiding love for us.
As you fully embrace the love God has for you, may it become the defining force in your life that gives you courage to love freely with the love of Christ. May the gift of Christ remind you that you are God’s beloved one, the one whom He came to save!
