Christmas lights on cold, clear nights; the Christmas tree with a golden glow.

Warm baked cookies and sparkling decorations.

Visiting family and friends, Christmas concerts, and picking out special gifts.  There’s just something about Christmas that seems kind of magical.

When I was younger, Christmastime seemed like the best part of the year and there was something just so wonderful about it!  As we get older it’s easy to lose some of that wonder because responsibilities easily can take our time and focus.  We might not have quite the same anticipation to open gifts that we did when we were younger, but let’s never lose our wonder for the most amazing Gift of all.  The changing point in history where the world was never the same because God sent Jesus to rescue us and redeem us.  Christmas doesn’t stop at Jesus’s birth either, it’s the beginning of the story of redemption from sin that God wrote for us so that we could have eternal life with Him like He had originally intended if we believe Jesus and ask Him to be our Savior.

I would encourage you to take time this Christmas to think about what Jesus did for us and thank Him for it, in worship and living out that gratefulness and adoration in our everyday lives.  Don’t let the distractions of this world steal the wonder and the joy that God intended for us to have. The devil wants to steal, kill, and destroy and he loves to use distractions of even good things to steal from the best.  Let’s set the gaze of our soul upon Jesus and ask Him to do a work in our hearts!

I love these quotes from the Christmas daily devotional that I’ve been reading called, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy by John Piper:

“God owns and controls all things. And there is nothing that he could give you for Christmas this year that would suit you needs and your longings better that the consolation of Israel and the redemption of Jerusalem, restoration for past losses and liberation from future enemies, forgiveness and freedom, pardon and power, healing the past and sealing the future.”

“Don’t leave Christmas in the abstract. Your sin. Your conflict with the devil. Your victory. He came for this.”

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the father,  full of grace and truth. . . . For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.  John 1:14 & 16