What If The Gift Never Came?

What If the Gift never came?

During this advent season, we have been talking about waiting. And perhaps how we tend to take the ancient meaning of Christmas for granted. The Question for today is What if the gift we celebrate as Christmas didn’t happen?

Lets start with a few secular things.

The fruit cake industry would have never gotten off the ground. There would be a glut of all the candied fruit. Probably 6 or seven jobs would be lost. So personally, I haven’t got a problem so far.

How about this thought, The amount of stress at my house would drop at least 90%. All the stress about gifts and getting something for everybody. The cost of celebrating Christmas. The “DISCUSSION” over the unfair holiday work distribution.

Ok, there is something else I could look at and thing that it is not a bad thing to reduce stress. Of course, our lives would be a bit more boring.

Eggnog would probably disappear like the dinosaurs. Doctors would ban it because of the sugar and cholesterol and people would live healthier lives without the temptation. It is only protected by the spirit of the Christmas season.

We would not over stuff ourselves at all the seasonal parties. We would avoid the seasonal weight gain and the guilt that goes with it.

How about this, you would only have your birthday or by spending your own money end up with clothes that don’t fit and ties that don’t match anything in your closet. The whole matching thing is not really my area of expertise.

Look at all the questions that would never be asked. Do reindeer really know how to fly? What magic is in that old silk hat? Santa and the whole chimney motif…. How long does it take to get the words to Santa is coming to town out of your head?

Santa would be just another fat man that dresses a bit strangely.

But, the Gift of Jesus Christ being born as a human being is real and it makes Christmas a reality.

On the night Jesus was born into our world the Angel said,

Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:10-11)

So I would guess that most of us we say Jesus Christ was borne and lived the live we read about in scripture.

But the question on the floor is “What if”. What If Jesus Never Came? What’s the big deal?

Toward the end of the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey cries out, “I want to live again! I want to live again!" Immediately he’s flashed from the previous scene and finds himself standing once more on the snow-covered iron bridge where earlier he had considered suicide: the dark swirling river below.

With help from Angel Second Class Clarence Oddbody, George had just discovered, to his horror, what life would be like had he never been born.

Anyone who’s watched this film can recall how without George Bailey the quaint town of Bedford Falls is reduced to Pottersville (ooh). It’s a creepy place. Main street is suddenly a red-light district with loud music and the flashing of flesh-peddling neon signs. Life is dark. All because George had never been born.

One person can make an enormous difference in the lives of others. There are many people that have made big differences for me personally.

But we’re talking about Jesus here. If we call ourselves Christians We are associating our selves with this man that lived long before any of us could have even met him in a physical way. Each of us in a way, claim that he has done something wondrous… We met him spiritually and we were made different. Our world has been changed in such vast ways that none of us can even imagine what it would be like if he had not come.

What if Jesus had never been born?

What difference would it have made in history if that Bethlehem stable hadn’t served as a makeshift delivery room 2,005 years ago?

What difference would it make in our daily lives?

Well actually, a great deal. Much of what we take for granted finds its roots in Christ and His teachings.

So I would like for us to consider some specific areas where Christ has had a significant impact on civilization, as we know it.

To help us with this, look at what the Bible says: Galatians 3:26-3:28

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.