Growing up we had this tradition in our house where we would read the Christmas story before we opened gifts. So go grab your Bible and read Luke 2:1-21.
How many of you read this story before you get to open gifts on Christmas morning? Now it is really hard to listen to this story on Christmas morning, is it not because you have all these gifts sitting in front of you and your dad or mom or someone who is half asleep is reading the story and you just want to know what is in those packages. And besides you have heard the story about a million times anyway. You practically know it by heart right? You know there was an innkeeper, and no room in the inn, there was a manger, Jesus was born in a smelly stable around all the animals, there were shepherds and wise men that came. You know the story.
And because we know the story we sort of just tune it out, or we are trying to make our siblings laugh and giggle. Or trying to figure out who is getting the big huge box and what the heck is in it. But I think as we think about this story, as we process the Christmas story we forget on one major thing.
You know I love christmas, I love giving people gifts, I enjoy getting things that I need. I love spending time with family and eating all the christmas goodies. I love seeing all me nieces and nephews open their gifts. It is so awesome to see the joy and excitment on their faces and their little hearts and lives are changed for a few moments. And this is how we are too I think when we get gifts we are excited and joyful, hopefully thankful.
Christmas is one of those times that you see all the presents under the tree and you hope that you get the one thing that you asked for. The one thing that is going to change your life. Maybe its a new piece of technology so you can now be up to date with that. Maybe its some new clothes so you can fit in with your crew. Whatever it is we hope we get the things that are going to change our life.
Growing up there was a tradition in our house that someone would get what we called the BIG GIFT. Now this was no ordinary gift, it was not your socks and underwear gift. This was something better than all the gifts under the tree. And there was a rotation of this gift between my siblings. So someone different got the BIG GIFT every year. And it was always the last gift. My dad would say something like oh there is one more gift and he would go and get the Big Gift from the garage where he was hiding it. Then he would make whoever it was for close there eyes and he would proceed to bring it in and put it right in front of them.
Well I remember when I was maybe 10 or 11 I learned that it was my year for the Big Gift and so we opened all the meaningless gifts and then it was time for my dad to make his voyage to the garage to bring in my gift so he goes out and gets it comes in with it tells me to shut my eyes so I do, my heart is pounding out of my chest but of course I am trying to keep in my excitement and be totally cool about getting the Big Gift even though I want to scream with excitement. So he brings it in and sets it in front of me and says open your eyes. And there in front of me sits a big box so I open it quickly and inside is no other than a Huffy BMX bike. Now at 10 this Big Gift is life changing. It’s like getting your license when you are 16 except your only 10. You now have freedom, and can go wherever you want, as long as your parents say it is ok. You can go out and do tricks and pretend you are a BMX rider. You can make jumps, show off to your friends, start a bike gang with all your other 10 year old buddies. I mean this is awesome. This bike was going to change my life. And I rode that bike into the ground until I was 16 when I got my license and then it was bye bye bike hello car.
And that gift that I got was so momentary but I thought it would change my life forever. And I think that this is how we often think in our lives. That on Christmas morning we pass quickly through the story of Christ so we can get to the things that we think will change our lives. And we spend so much money on these things that for most of us end up in a closet or the trash a few months or years later. And we miss a really important part of the Christmas story. Check out verse 11 for me. It says this “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a SAVIOR who is Christ the Lord.”
Listen I know that at this time of year all us preachers talk about how we can’t forget the most important gift which is Jesus. But here is the reality in our lives, every year Christmas comes and we forget about the BIG GIFT of Jesus Christ. You see I think that for a lot of us we treat Jesus just like we treat most of our Christmas gifts. He is awesome when you first get Him. He is going to change your life. He is going to make everything better. Then like my bike, you take Him for a ride, for a few weeks, months maybe a few years and then all of the sudden we upgrade to something better and Jesus once again gets put in the attic for awhile.
But if you look at verse 11 it says that “unto us a Savior was born who is Christ the Lord. The Lord came, Jesus came to be our Savior, to be our everything. To be our Big Gift. But I think for a lot of us we are still looking under the tree for our Savior. Yeah we might have Jesus but more often than not He is just like the socks and underwear we get every year and so we put Him aside and look and hope for something better. We look for the Big Gift that will be our “savior” to our friends, our job, our emotions our habits and just as soon as we get that gift it is not enough to save us from our insecurities. It does not save us from our emptiness. It does not save us really in anyway. The only thing it does is distract us from the real Savior who was born to you and he is the Savior because He is the Lord.
And He is the only gift that will save you from your insecurities, from your emptiness, from your habits. He is the only gift that gave back to you in a way that no other gift can. He is the only gift that not only gave himself to you but continues to give himself to you so that you can not only know the Savior but you can be saved.
So this Christmas when you are sitting around the tree reading the christmas story remember verse 11 “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a SAVIOR who is Christ the Lord.” Remember that no gift will ever save you from anything unless that gift is Christ the Lord.
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