20. Merry Christmas 2021! My Gift To You

Merry Christmas! We’ve discussed much in the last three weeks about Christmas and this season. How to keep it simple and special, what do we do when it is not the most wonderful time of the year, and ways to have a stress-free Christmas. And here we are. Just a few days before we celebrate the birth of our Savior. I also share my gift to you this Christmas. It may help us keep our focus on the true meaning of Christmas this week.

So, are you ready for Christmas?

What do we think about when we answer? Maybe we think of the shopping, the baking, the decorating we’ve done, or haven’t done. Or maybe we think about what’s left on our lists and all we have yet to do.

I get it. We host my extended family here in our home in two days. The house isn’t ready, the food isn’t prepared. But I’ve learned no matter what doesn’t get done, the most important thing to me is spending time with those I love. It’s not stressing about what I don’t have done.

However, what if our answers took none of this kind of stuff into consideration? What if our answers were based on the real meaning of Christmas, instead? What if we thought of Jesus’ birth, rather than what the world says we’re to focus on? Are we ready for Christmas? For Jesus’ birth? I have a hunch our answers would be full of resounding yeses! We are all ready for Jesus’ birth, aren’t we?!

We are ready for some hope, right?

In this episode I share hope, with some snippets of the account of Jesus’ birth. Don’t you wonder what Joseph and Mary were thinking? Did they truly understand what was happening right before their eyes? And why a stable? Why did God choose that as a place for Jesus’ birth?

We also discuss the shepherds, one of my favorite parts of the Christmas story. Who were these people? And why did the angel appear to these ordinary, everyday kind of men. But, they weren’t ordinary to God. (And neither are we.)

I also share four truths we can learn from this part of the Christmas story, and they point us to the encouragement God extends to us in this season. One of them is this: God cares about ordinary people, just like you and me.

Click on the player above to listen to the full episode.

I also have a gift for you.

My gift to you this Christmas may be the best gift I can give.

My gift to you this Christmas is this: it’s the full account of the Christmas story. I’ve adopted this from Bible Study Fellowship’s children’s training lesson on Christmas. It is waiting for you on my website, in my Free Resources. I invite you to either print it off or bookmark that page on my site so you can return to it. Read it all at once or a little at a time. Reading it all at once will take you less than 15 minutes. However you use it, I’m already praying it blesses you and enhances the way you celebrate the birth of Jesus this year.

I pray your Christmas is filled with God’s peace, presence, and provision, as you celebrate our Savior’s birth. God bless you!

Links in this episode: