Last Updated Dec 24th, 2019 at 12:21 pm

Christmas is here again! It seems to arrive more quickly each passing year.

Do you have a calendar full of plans? A living room full of gifts? A kitchen full of sweets? You are blessed if you do.

But...

What are your plans for the 26th of December? What will you be left with after Christmas has come and gone? Some new toys, a little less money, and a little more body fat?

After the get-togethers and the feasting and the drinking and the laughing and the surprises and the arguments and the hugs — what then?

Will you simply drag your tree out to the curb and pack up all of your Christmas decorations to stash in the basement until the day after Thanksgiving next year?

Enjoy your new gifts for a week or so?

My prayer for you, whoever you are, wherever you are, is that you'd open yourself, more than ever before, to the things of eternity this Christmas. That you'd really consider — perhaps for the first time ever? — what it means that "Christ is born in Bethlehem."

I wish you'd stop and think about the lyrics you've no doubt heard this season:

Hark! the herald angels sing,

"Glory to the new-born King!

Peace on earth, and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconciled."

"God and sinner reconciled"! Nothing could be more wondrous than that.

Sin-stained humans, hopelessly lost, corrupted through and through, reconciled to the God who created the universe, who is the embodiment and source of holiness, perfection, and love — and into whose presence no evil can enter.

Peace between us and the one who created every atom in the universe, and against whom we've continuously rebelled. Unthinkable! But available.

And it is only made possible by that "new-born King."

Jesus.

God the Son.

The one through whom and for whom all things were created (Colossians 1:16).

The Savior who left the perfect harmony of the eternal Trinity to come here and rescue us. To be born lowly and humble in a manger. To live the perfect life you and I could never live. To die a terrible death, in our place, in order to pay the penalty our sins demand. To absorb God's wrath meant for us, on our behalf. To make possible the dismissal of our case, though we've been found guilty. To give us his perfect righteousness so we may not only enter the presence of God, but dwell there — forever.

Jesus did this.

As Charles Spurgeon intimated in a 19th-century sermon:

…No aristocratic Christ have I to commend to you, but the Savior of the people, the Friend of publicans and sinners. Jesus is the true "poor man's Friend;" He is "a Witness to the people, a Leader and Commander to the people." Oh, that each one of us might truly say, "Unto me is Jesus born"! If I truly believe in Him, Christ is born unto me, and I may be as sure of it as if an angel announced it personally to me, since the Scripture assures me that, if I believe in Jesus, He is mine, and I am His, and through union with Him I become a partaker in His everlasting life, and in all that He has.

And again — listen to him:

Poor sinner! Christ has not left going forth yet. Have you a Bethlehem in your heart? Are you little? He will go forth to you yet. Go home and seek him by earnest prayer. If you have been made to weep on account of sin, and think yourself too little to be noticed, go home, little one! Jesus comes to little ones; his goings forth were of old, and he is going forth now. He will come to your poor old house; he will come to your poor wretched heart; he will come, though you are in poverty, and clothed in rags, though you are destitute, tormented, and afflicted; he will come, for his goings forth have been of old from everlasting. Trust him, trust him, trust him; and he will go forth to abide in your heart for ever.

The miracle we celebrate at Christmas is worthy of celebration every single day we have breath.

You do not have to pack Christmas away this year once the day has passed. The point of Christmas is to celebrate the coming of the Savior humanity had ached and groaned for since the dawn of time.

He has come. You can have him.

This Christmas, grab on to Jesus, and hold on to him. Read the Bible; see what he's done for you. Open yourself to him, and see if he doesn't grab hold of you and never let go.

There's never been a better Christmas to give yourself to Jesus.