Christmas Should Mean Sacrifice

           What does Christmas mean to you?  Is it a time for the sharing of presents with family or other people you know, as well as "with yourself" as the ads like to say?  Is it a time of joy, or a time of stress?  Is it a time of inner peace or a time of rushing and worrying and making plans?  Is it all about me and mine, or does it include thoughts of the Christ child being born?  While many people might say it's about Jesus' birth, what does your activity, your life, really say?

            Christmas really should be all about sacrifice.  "She brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger."  (Luke 2:7)  The term "swaddling clothes" really denotes strips of cloth that were wrapped around the limbs of an infant for protection.  Joseph and Mary were very poor, and the various pictures, whether in paintings or programs, where we see them in their nice colorful clothing along with the Baby, a pillow under His head with nice thick blankets tucked around Him, while appealing to the eye are incorrect as far as reflecting reality. 

            I've been thinking about the Majesty of Heaven laying aside His Divine Glory, veiling Himself in humanity and being born and then wrapped in the cloth strips which the term "swaddling clothes" really means.  It is a term that has a medical meaning which refers to strips of cloth used as bandages.  In thinking about those cloth strips my mind went to Psalm 118:27 - "Bind the sacrifice with cords...."  Jesus came to earth as a sacrifice.  Not only a sacrifice on the cross for our sins, but He was bound to humanity with ties that are never to be broken.  "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given..."     "God so loved... that He gave...."  It is the Son of Man who shares the throne of the universe. 

            God did not give His Son for just a 33 year life span on earth, but forever.  For all eternity the second member of the Godhead will maintain His humanity.  Satan intended to bring about an eternal separation between God and man, but instead God gave His Son to redeem, restore, and forever bind us to Himself with cords of self sacrificing love.

            How is it now with me?  The command in Romans 12:1 clearly states:  "Present your (my) body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable  to God...."  Because of His love for me God gave all He had.  Will that sacrifice awaken love in me for God, and lead me to give my all to God?  Christmas really should mean sacrifice.  The sacrifice of God for a lost and broken world, and the sacrifice of me and all I have for God and His service to others.