Christ's Christmas

Some 2,000 years ago, in a small rural suburb of Jerusalem, a woman and her soon-to-be husband arrive at an inn but there is no vacancy available.  The woman, though a virgin, was quite pregnant and the baby's delivery imminent and near.

Months earlier, an angel of the Lord, Gabriel, had come to the woman and prophesied that the Lord Most High would descend upon her and she would bear a child, the Son of God, and that she would call His name, Jesus, meaning God saves.  The man she was betrothed to discovered that she was with child and, though he thought of divorcing her, when an angel came to him, in a dream, revealed that his betrothed's child was the Christ, the Messiah who would save all mankind from their sin.

At this time, near the end of the young woman's pregnancy, the emperor issued a decree requiring that everyone return to their ancestry's land to be censored.  The man took his pregnant fiance to the place of his ancestry, to Bethlehem.  The trip was arduous and long.  Upon arrival, the woman realized that it was time: she was going to deliver her child.

Although the inn was full, a man offered the couple a cave that served as a stable for livestock for them to stay in.  The woman delivered her child, an infant boy.  She wrapped him in swaddling cloths and placed him in a trough.

Meanwhile, shepherds nearby were watching their sheep by night as an angel of the Lord appeared before them and told them that in Bethlehem a child was born.  The angel told the shepherds to go to the town and to offer praises to the newborn as He was to be the Messiah, the savior of all mankind.  They left their flocks and the fields to find the couple and their child in the stable, the infant resting in a manger, wrapped in strips of cloth.  It was just how the angel had prophesied it to be.

The Christmas story is repeated yearly in the Christian calendar.  It is the beginning of Jesus' life and His ministry.  At this time, the 25th of December, let us take time to remember Christ, to remember the dozens of prophecies that were fulfilled in His birth, let alone His life.  A time to remember that God is sovereign and holy, and that He condescended into humanity for the purpose of redeeming His children from sin.  Now we can enter into right relationship with Him by Him and for Him.  Truly, this is what Christmas is all about.