November 30
Our family loves traditions and making memories, especially at this time of year. Our annual Christmas “bucket list” includes several things, like baking and decorating Christmas cookies, driving around town in our pj's, hot chocolate in hand, to look at lights, going to a nearby family farm to cut down a Christmas tree, and of course, decorating the tree with our young children.
After the lights are on, the ornaments are hung, and the tree is topped with a star, we add one last special ornament right in the middle of the tree — a wooden cross.
As we enjoy the sight and smell of our tree each day leading up to Christmas, this one ornament serves as a daily reminder to our family that Christmas is about the cross.
Notice this truth in the very center of Jesus’ birth story from Matthew 1:18-25:
The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After His mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit. So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”* Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name Him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.” When Joseph got up from sleeping, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her but did not know her intimately until she gave birth to a son. And he named Him Jesus.
At Christmas, we celebrate that the Son of God and God the Son Jesus, the long awaited Immanuel, took on flesh and was born as a baby among us.
John 1:14a describes this miracle this way: "The Word became flesh and took up residence among us."
Fully God and fully man, Jesus lived the perfect life that we could not live and paid the price that we could not pay. Jesus died on the cross in our place for our sins, and all who place their faith in Him will be saved.
After the lights are on, the ornaments are hung, and the tree is topped with a star, we add one last special ornament right in the middle of the tree — a wooden cross.
As we enjoy the sight and smell of our tree each day leading up to Christmas, this one ornament serves as a daily reminder to our family that Christmas is about the cross.
Notice this truth in the very center of Jesus’ birth story from Matthew 1:18-25:
The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After His mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit. So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”* Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name Him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.” When Joseph got up from sleeping, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her but did not know her intimately until she gave birth to a son. And he named Him Jesus.
At Christmas, we celebrate that the Son of God and God the Son Jesus, the long awaited Immanuel, took on flesh and was born as a baby among us.
John 1:14a describes this miracle this way: "The Word became flesh and took up residence among us."
Fully God and fully man, Jesus lived the perfect life that we could not live and paid the price that we could not pay. Jesus died on the cross in our place for our sins, and all who place their faith in Him will be saved.
All who place their faith in Him will be saved
This year, consider adding a cross to your tree as a tangible reminder that Christmas is ultimately about the cross. Jesus, Immanuel, was born to die to “save His people from their sins.”
Hope // Christmas is About the Cross | Josh Rhodes
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