Christmastime is here! One by one the boxes come out of the attic and treasures from years past are rediscovered. A handmade ornament here. A special candy dish there. A picture of your child screaming while sitting on Santa-from-the-Mall’s lap. Oh, the memories.
One thing that our family likes to collect is nativities. We have several from around the world: Peru, Israel, and I even brought back one from El Salvador this year. We have full sets from Willow Tree and Fontanini. We have big ones and small ones. Like I said, it’s our thing.
As I carefully unwrapped one manger scene to display, I was thinking of the sweet baby Jesus asleep on the hay and what an amazing gift it is that heaven came down to create this scene. Everything is so serene, so tender and mild.
But I wonder, how content are we to let Jesus stay in the manger?
The beauty of the nativity is that Jesus was born to provide salvation for ALL PEOPLE.
Luke 1:77-79 states that Jesus came for this reason:
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.
Jesus did so much more than just being born on that Holy Night. He grew up and He provided the world with what they so desperately needed…salvation and the forgiveness of their sins. He came to provide LIGHT and PEACE.
In light of all this revelation, I decided to give myself a little Christmas Challenge. I started with reading the Christmas story in Luke, but instead of leaving Baby Jesus in the manger, I will continue reading one chapter per day. By Christmas Morning, Jesus will have died for my sins, been resurrected from the grave, and ascended into heaven. How sweet is that?! I would love for you to join me in this challenge too!
This Christmas let’s take Baby Jesus out of the manger and make Him Lord of our life.
Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in thy tender care,
And take us to heaven, to live with Thee there.
April this a a fabulous blog post and what a wonderful idea! I will be joining you in your Christmas challenge and hope you do not mind that I am going to share your blog post and Christmas challenge with my readers also.
Terri, I would love that! The more the “merrier.” Much love to you this Christmas season!
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I came to read this post thanks to Terri’s recommendation on her blog! What a great reminder! Thank you! I have toddlers and worked out an advent plan for us and really wanted to include the whole story of Jesus for my kids to connect Christmas to His birth to the purpose of Jesus coming to earth–to save us!
Hannah, thank you for reading it and for your comment. May the Lord richly bless you and your family this Christmas and in the new year!
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