Christmas
Many people take Christmas as a time for holidays, gifts, family reunions, decorated trees, festive parties, et cetera. There is nothing wrong with these expressions unless they replace the real significance of the celebration: Christmas is the time when we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. The birth of Jesus was predicted thousands of years ahead of time. Christmas fulfilled the promise of God to humankind in the Garden of Eden, when He said to the serpent (Satan), “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15).
After the passage of some time, God chose Abraham, a man from Ur of the Chaldees, to become the father of His chosen nation. He promised that He would make Abraham a great nation and bless all the families of the earth through him (Genesis 12:3). As Abraham’s descendants increased, the Lord chose the tribe of Judah as the line through which this promised SEED would come. Eventually, He revealed that David, the son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, would be the ancestor of Israel’s coming King (Jeremiah 23:5;33:15).
Through the prophet Isaiah, God gave further details about how the SEED would come. In Isaiah 7:14 we read, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” The book of Matthew tells us the meaning of Immanuel— “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). That is to say, the eternal God would enter humanity through a physical birth, to live among His people as a man while never ceasing to be God. Immanuel would be physically present on earth, walking among His people, revealing the Father to them, teaching precious truths, showing them how to live, and healing the sick.
When the time drew near for the SEED to come to the earth, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin Mary pledged to be married to a man called Joseph, a descendant of David. The angel told her that she would bear the Son of God. But since she was a virgin, she asked the angel, “How will this be?” The angel answered that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the Highest would overshadow her, so that the Holy One to be born would be called the Son of God (Luke 1:31-35). At His birth, an angel announced His arrival: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). In Galatians 4:4 we read, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.”
At the appointed time, Christ laid down His life for the sins of the entire world. The Bible says, “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2). But on the third day, Christ rose victoriously from the grave, defeating Satan forevermore. The SEED bruised Satan’s head.
So, as you gather with your family around the Christmas tree, stop for a moment and worship the SEED who came as a baby and died as a man to give you everlasting life. When you see the presents, think of His gift of salvation. And the best gift you can give Christ on Christmas is your heart. Do it today!