Love

John 3:16-17

“Love”

This might sound like a silly question, but let’s ask ourselves anyway…

What is Christmas and when does it come?

I know it’s in 4 days, but…

…surely, it’s more than a date on a calendar.

And it’s got to be more than Christmas trees and colored lights.

Christmas can’t just be about Santa or flying reindeer.

Surely Christmas is more than poinsettias and presents and pageants and parades as nice as those are.

I mean, what puts Christmas deep into our souls?

What writes the Christmas spirit indelibly on our hearts?

Well, of course, the essence of Christmas is love, God’s incredible love for us, expressed when God sent Jesus Christ into the world to save us.

Whenever and wherever God’s love is accepted and shared, Christmas comes again!

Do you have a favorite Christmas memory?

My favorite Christmas memory is the Christmas of my Freshman year of college.

I had been hard partying, heavy metal dude in high school.

I loved heavy metal music and the lyrics to those songs, and I lived them out best I could.

And that was how I was known.

That was my identity.

I wasn’t a bad person, I was just lost and angry at the world.

I had no direction.

I was unhappy.

And then I made a friend who showed me Christ through his actions.

I had never met a Christ-follower who was my age before.

My new friend was so different than me and from the other friends I had.

He was living for Jesus.

He was loving other people no matter who they were.

He was sharing Christ through his words and actions.

And for the first time I saw that it really is possible to be transformed…

…to love…

…to have hope and a reason to live.

And I wanted what he had.

I wanted Jesus.

We often meet Jesus through the love of other people.

That’s how it worked for me.

How about you?

So, in November of my Freshman year, I decided to follow Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and put him first in my life.

I have not been the same person since.

It changed my heart.

It changed my personality.

It changed my behavior.

When I came home for Christmas break I went to a lot of parties with kids from my high school—old friends.

I looked the same on the outside…

…except for the smile on my face…

…and the way I interacted with people, the way I talked, opened up, and the new confidence I had.

Many, many years later I overheard my father talking about that time.

He was saying to someone, “When Kenny came back from college it was like he was a completely different person.”

And in so many ways—it’s true.

That was a great, great Christmas.

The best I’ve ever had.

My faith was fresh and new.

And the meaning of Christmas had become incredibly meaningful to me…as a matter of fact, I guess you could say: I experienced it for the first time!

When we, like the shepherds, fall down in awe, and wonder before the manger of God’s love, there it is: Christmas!

When we, like the three wise men, give our best to the Master, there is Christmas!

When we, like Mary and Joseph, trust and obey God and try our best to do God’s will, there is Christmas!

One of the best known and most beloved verses in all the Bible is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

That’s what Christmas is really about.

We were lost and needed a Savior and God sent us one.

We needed hope, direction,

transformation, salvation and love.

And so God became a human being.

We needed to know that God so loved the world so God gave the world God’s Son!

When we bow down before Jesus, when we accept God’s love, when we receive Christ into our hearts and commit our lives in faith to following him…

…whenever and wherever, that happens, there is Christmas!

Whenever and wherever, that happens, Christmas comes again!

Many years ago, there lived in a small village a shoemaker by the name of Conrad.

Day by day, early and late, the tap, tap, tap of his hammer could be heard as he fixed the shoes brought to him by the villagers.

Though he was alone and poor, this kind man always had a warm and friendly word for everyone.

Because of this, many folks left his shop feeling better than they had when they had come.

Now, as we know, Christmas is a time when many families get together, but Conrad had no family.