The Significance of Christmas — Redeeming The Time

By Tyler Vigue

“Is it just a birthday?” It’s the most wonderful time of the year, the season leading up to Christmas. And as I began to listen to Christmas music and decorate the house and such, I began to ponder that question. Things in the Bible are rarely as simple as they may seem from the first look. So, what’s the significance of Christmas? Is it simply a celebration of the birth of the One we worship? Or is there something deeper, something we can learn from the record of Jesus’ birth? This study has been a roller coaster, so without further ado, lets jump into scripture to answer:

What’s the significance of the birth of Jesus?

Looking at the whole of scripture, Jesus is literally the stitching that holds it all together. In the Old Testament, Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection were predicted all through scripture. Hundreds and hundreds of prophecies of Jesus were used, and they draw the whole Old Testament together in preparation for the climax of Jesus’ coming. One thing is for sure, to a society that studied its scriptures so intensely, the coming of the Messiah should not have been missed.

And yet, at every turn, Jesus was missed. Over and over and over and over and over and over again Jesus was underestimated, even by those closest to Him. The best example that comes to mind is an account that I just love from John chapter four. In that passage, Jesus travels to Samaria and He meets a woman there at a well. They have a significantly long conversation. Jesus ministers to the woman, but she responds at every turn with confrontational attitude, bringing up controversial topics to challenge Him with. Despite her attitude, Jesus expertly directs the conversation in a circle. I think of it like a sandwich. When I eat a sandwich, I eat the crust around the edge first, then go in the middle once the trim is gone. That’s what Jesus did with the woman at the well; He first dances around from topic to topic, guiding the conversation around until all the bases are covered. Then, He jumps into the heart of it with one phrase, “I am the Messiah.” And because He had already made it clear to her with the rest of the conversation, she suddenly opens her eyes and sees the truth. She drops what she was doing without another word and books it for town, where she tells everyone about Him, and they follow her back and believe just like she did.

It’s a fascinating read, with loads of good stuff that could be unpacked. But focus on one thing here: She didn’t immediately recognize Jesus as the Messiah. He didn’t walk around with a spotlight on Him, or with a halo over His head, or even necessarily with a following crowd that chanted His name. At a glance, Jesus seemed average. Sometimes different, He was very counter-cultural, that’s for sure, but rarely did people acknowledge Him as special or above, and certainly not as the Messiah He was. There was nothing significant about Jesus, unless you looked closely. And when people did, they realized that He was everything significant.

This was a trend that started right from the beginning. Jesus was easy to miss and easy to write-off. Jesus was born in a manger, which isn’t a word we use outside Christmas very often, but it was a type of tray used to feed hay to livestock and indicates that Jesus was born in a barn. Why a barn? Well that’s easy: the world had no room for Jesus. There was a census going on and Jews were mobilized all over the country in a frenzy. In the madness, a lot of people were at the inn, and so there was no room for the pregnant Mary and her husband Joseph. In the madness that surrounded Him, Jesus was pushed to the sidelines, and in 2000 years, little has changed. The world we live in today has fallen into a trap set by Satan himself. Times that should be spent giving attention to Jesus have been consumed by the craziness of life. I believe that the frantic nature of the holiday season was designed to distract people from what really matters. And so, 2000 years later, the world is just as eager as it ever was to put itself first and let Jesus sleep in the barn.

Jesus’ birth could have been a massive event. He could have come down from heaven in a chariot of fire and taken the kingdom of Judah for His own. He could have charged to earth with an army of angels. He could have uttered a word and had the whole earth bow at the sound of His voice. But He didn’t. His birth was such a subtle event that many didn’t even realize had happened. We sometimes get this idea that all kinds of dramatic things happened the night He was born. The live action Nativity movie depicts that, at His birth, the “star in the east” we see in scripture shines a holy laser beam from heaven on Jesus and people from all over see it and gasp in wonder. The wise men show up that night and give Him these amazing gifts, and that night Joseph, Mary, and Jesus flee to Egypt to escape the genocide of Herod. None of those things happened that night. The Magi from the east likely didn’t show up for a long time, Herod couldn’t have issued his order-to-kill until, at the absolute least, nine days after Jesus’ birth, and it probably was later than that. And somehow, I doubt the star in the east shined a magic spotlight on Jesus through a convenient hole in the ceiling.* Don’t get me wrong, I’m not putting miracles in a box here, but it seems like all that stuff we’ve filled into the story in post is inconsistent with what we legitimately know. Except for one angelic presence that night (which I’ll get to later), nothing too crazy seemed to happen at Jesus’ birth. If something dramatic did happen, more people would have seen and acknowledged Him. But what we see is that only a tiny minority even realized the Savior of Israel had been born. And with that, our question is answered:

The significance of the birth of Jesus is that there is no significance to the birth of Jesus, unless you look really closely!

The world didn’t have any space for Him and didn’t even notice when He was born! However, we do see four groups (except for His earthly parents) who realized what had just happened: The shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem, the Magi from the East, Simeon and Anna in the temple, and of course, the enemies of God. And now I present the true purpose of this article: “How to Spot the Presence of a Subtle God.” What can we learn from these four groups? God is alive and moving in our world today, but just like 2000 years ago, we often miss His presence. Elijah encountered God not in a whirlwind, not in an earthquake, and not in a fire. He encountered God as a gentle whisper that would have been so easy and so tragic to miss. So, what can we learn from the people who did spot the birth of the Christ?

First, let’s talk about the shepherds. The shepherds were likely the most interesting group I could talk about here. Allow to me give you the setting for the night of Jesus birth, even though you’ve probably heard it a hundred times. Bethlehem is the place that King David was from. It was a place with lots of fields where livestock were pastured. This should come as no surprise considering that David was a shepherd before being anointed as king by the prophet Samuel. At the time of Jesus’ birth, the Roman emperor had declared a census, which made every person register in their hometown. What the Romans apparently didn’t realize was that in Jewish culture, your hometown was the land of your ancestors, and so every person had to go to the land which belonged to the furthest ancestor they could trace back to. In the case of Joseph, the husband of Mary, he could trace back to King David, and so he returned to Bethlehem with his pregnant wife. And he was probably just one of many who could trace back to King David. David himself had more than a few kids, and one of them was Solomon. Solomon had about seven-hundred wives. King David probably had a bunch of grandchildren through Solomon. Imagine how many people were trying to get to Bethlehem in that time?

And so, Mary and Joseph go to a stable because Mary is likely in labor and the inns are full. Then the most precious baby in history is born, the Son of God. At His birth, a great multitude of angels paraded through the bursting city of Bethlehem praising God and announcing the birth of Jesus to the masses— oh wait, no they didn’t. Luke 2:8-20 records the account. Luke reports that there was a great multitude of angels, which could mean anywhere from hundreds to infinite. But they skipped Bethlehem. So where did they go? Jerusalem? Nope. They went to the fields just outside Bethlehem. They revealed themselves to a group of shepherds in the fields who got stuck with night shift, and they told those shepherds that inside the city the Messiah had been born.

Why would they choose shepherds to go tell of the newborn Jesus? Well let’s break down the status of a shepherd by looking at some of the many shepherds in scripture. First is Moses. Moses was a prince or other high-official ruler in Egypt, but he killed an Egyptian and was forced to flee. I can imagine that the incident got tons of coverage on ENN or whatever they had back then. Moses had to run and hide for his life, and how did he hide and disguise himself? He became a shepherd. Hmmm… Or look at David again. When the prophet Samuel was told to go and anoint the son of Jesse to be the new king of Israel, Samuel went to Bethlehem and told Jesse to line up his sons. Samuel didn’t find the new king among Jesse’s sons, however. But Samuel knew what God had said, so he asked Jesse if he somehow had any other kids kicking around somewhere. It turns out that Jesse either pretended that David didn’t exist, or he just straight up forgot about him. Pick your poison. Jesse clearly didn’t have a very high opinion of David. And here’s the real punch: David was a shepherd, maybe even in the same fields as these ones. Shepherds clearly had little-to-no respect. David was the youngest of his brothers and so the job was probably thrust upon him. It was a dirty, difficult, and straight-up dangerous job. In our modern day, think of the people who pick up your garbage off the side of the road, or even the pavers who put your road there in the first place. And to top it all off, shepherds were practically servants to animals, the low of all lows.

Looking at the shepherds in the fields the night of Jesus’ birth, we might be able to do some halfway-decent guesswork. First, they were probably born into their job in one way or another. Either they were the youngest son, or their family lived in poverty, or maybe they were social outcasts, or some other manner landed them the job. Would it surprise you if one or even a couple of them had been born in mangers themselves? I think it’s way too possible to rule out, that’s for sure.

Let’s go back to our paver analogy. Imagine that you’re out paving all day on a hot summer day. You’re sweaty, stinky, dirty, and exhausted. You go home and get ready to crash, but suddenly you notice that Queen Elizabeth is sitting at your dinner table. Now you have the total opposite of a fancy person hosting probably the fanciest person on earth right now. Sounds a little awkward right?

But now go back to the shepherds. These shepherds were Jews, they probably knew of the coming Messiah. But they probably figured that they would never see Him or interact with Him. He would come and do some crazy things, but the sheep would still need tending to. The Messiah was someone who would be in the high places of man, running around ruling kingdoms, not someone for the lowly shepherds. But lo and behold, they find the baby Messiah in a barn, born potentially even the same way they were. Imagine what that experience would be like.

The angels revealed to the shepherds that the Messiah had been born because the shepherds were on the same level as God. “Whoa, what did he just say? Same level as God? Blasphemy!” Not really. Like I said earlier, Jesus easily could have come to earth in more dramatic, powerful, and flashier ways. But He didn’t. The level God truly lives on is unattainably high for humans. But the level that Jesus willingly put Himself on was at rock bottom, which is exactly how the other people at the bottom found Him. The humility of the shepherds, which they likely didn’t even choose, took them straight to Jesus, who did choose humility. Jesus was the Messiah for the lowest of lows, and the pride of the rest of the nation acted like a blindfold that hid His presence among them. And so, the humblest of people in Israel were witness to possibly the only miraculous event that occurred the night of Jesus’ birth.

We’ll get back to the shepherds a little bit later, but for now let’s move on to the Magi, also known as the wisemen or kings from the East. We see their appearance in Matthew 2:1-12. The passage doesn’t give a lot of background, so there is a lot of speculation across different historical accounts and various Christian traditions as to who the Magi were. Some sources say that they were each from different regions like India, Babylon, and Persia, and some say they were all from Babylon. I agree with the latter. It appears that the Magi were familiar with the works of Daniel and Balaam, who both had Babylonian ties. The Magi account reports that they followed a star in the East to the place where the King of the Jews had been born. That is really confusing because they were coming from the East themselves, so why would an Eastern star take them west? And what was the nature of this star? It’s all speculation at this point, but it’s worth noting that “East” in the Bible refers to Babylon either literally or metaphorically more often than not. Most agree that the Magi were some form of astrologers, probably religious experts who used the stars to predict the future and gain wisdom of some sort. And like I said previously, they seem to have had access to the literary works of Daniel and Balaam. This brought their attention to Messianic prophecies found in Daniel 9 and Numbers 24, which both tell of a star which would mark the birth of a King who would rule over Israel and save humanity from sin.

“Seventy weeks are determined

For your people and for your holy city,

To finish the transgression,

To make an end of sins,

To make reconciliation for iniquity,

To bring in everlasting righteousness,

To seal up vision and prophecy,

And to anoint the Most Holy.

Know therefore and understand,

That from the going forth of the command

To restore and build Jerusalem

Until Messiah the Prince,

There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks,

The street shall be built again and the wall,

Even in troublesome times.” Daniel 9:24-25 NKJV

“I see Him, but not now;

I behold Him, but not near;

A Star shall come out of Jacob;

A Scepter shall rise out of Israel,

And batter the brow of Moab,

And destroy all the sons of tumult.

…

Out of Jacob One shall have dominion,

And destroy the remains of the city.” Numbers 24:17-19 NKJV

Messianic prophecies, clearly. Interestingly enough, Balaam’s prophecy in Numbers appears to use “Star” as a capital title for Jesus in stride with the title “Scepter,” not as a star one would see in the sky. The combination of the two appear to indicate the divinity and authority of Jesus.

Here’s the point though: The Magi were very academic and studious people. I challenge you to go outside with a lined ruler on the next clear night and try to measure the movements of the stars overnight. Then I want you to use what the stars told you to construct a grocery list for your next trip to Hannaford. These guys were hardcore, man! Now, I’m not saying that they could legitimately divine from the stars, but they certainly tried to. And they tried hard enough apparently that when a new tiny little dot in that giant sea of tiny little dots appeared, they noticed that it wasn’t there before. And they studied Jewish scripture well too. Who knows what their real religious affiliation was, but somehow, they came to place a rather heavy weight on the Jewish scriptures, enough to take a very long journey to go see if the things that they were reading and observing were true. And they were truly rewarded.

The Magi got to see Jesus here on earth. That’s a very special privilege that only a handful of the collective human population has ever gotten to do. That’s especially significant considering where they came from. Probably the most convincing argument as to where they came from lies in this next concept. It’s just like God to use such a backwards twist of events like this. You see, Babylon was a real nation yes, but it became symbolic in Jewish culture, literary works, and scripture as evil, reviled, oppressive, abusive, and all around directly opposed to God. The book of Revelation contains the most dramatic literary styles in scripture, and when it tries to convey the dirtiest, most reviling, most impure, most evil being possible, do you know what it uses? It uses a character called “The harlot of Babylon.” Revelation 17:5 gives us her full title, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth.” Doesn’t she just sound lovely? Notice how “Babylon” is slipped right in with all the other nasty titles. Babylonians were seen as the worst people on earth to the Jews, and for good reason too. And so, leave it to the tragic irony of God’s plan that Babylonians were aware of Christ’s birth and the Jews missed Him completely.

How could that even be possible? It certainly shouldn’t have been. Imagine telling a Jewish scholar back then that they had missed the Messiah entirely, but Babylonians had found Him and worshipped Him. That scholar would scoff at you. “Impossible,” he would say. “The Messiah is for the Jews, Babylonians have no place with Him.” And yet he would be wrong, because in one of the most tragic twists in history, that’s exactly what happened.

How? Why? What was it about those Babylonians that they would be granted to see the young Messiah? I’ll tell you what it was: The Magi had found the balance of studying the word and the world. The Jews were amazing at that first part! And yet even though many were memorizing the entirety of the Old Testament, they weren’t using it! If they were, they would have seen the signs! They would have known that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, they would have known that the Messiah would have the ability and authority to forgive sins, and they would have known to look for the star. But they missed it! The Jews got so caught up in studying scripture that they forgot to use scripture. Those Babylonian Magi, however, knew exactly how to do both. And because they did, they didn’t miss the Messiah when He came. What a mind-blowing blessing.

Next were the man and woman in the temple, Simeon and Anna. When Jesus was around a month old, His parents brought Him to the temple just like the Law commanded. While they were there, some intensely awesome things happened with those two people I just mentioned. Let me just show you the whole account on its own without me giving you the summary on my own.

And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel [The Messiah], and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said:

“Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,

According to Your word;

For my eyes have seen Your salvation

Which you have prepared before the face of all peoples,

A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles,

And the glory of Your people Israel.”

And Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him. Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity; and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Luke 2:25-38 NKJV

Let me give you some background on this now. Recall that Jesus had no halo over His head or other obvious heavenly indicator that labeled Him as the Messiah at a glance. Also recall that the temple was the center of all Jewish worship across the entire country. Like we just read, every firstborn son had to be brought to the temple to be dedicated, (Exodus 13), people had to go to the temple for a sacrifice for sin (Leviticus 4-5), or for really anything (like, the entire book of Leviticus). The temple was a hustle-bustle type place, with all kinds of craziness going on. And in that day, the temple had even become a marketplace of sorts. In fact, when Jesus grew up, He would later condemn what the temple had become. God’s presence would physically reside in the innermost court of the temple or as a cloud or fire above the temple. So, it’s safe to say that the temple was where people were supposed to go to be close to God. And yet, when God was right there in the form of a baby boy, everyone missed Him. Why? Well they were too busy worshipping God of course! I mean come on, Israel! Out of all the people who were probably worshipping and offering sacrifices in the temple that day, two, only two, are recorded as recognizing the presence of the Messiah.

Now, I’ll grant Israel this: I have no idea how they were supposed to recognize Jesus, but if Simeon and Anna managed it, it was certainly possible. So how did those two do it? Well that’s easy, they didn’t recognize Christ on the outside. They both had it revealed to them in one way or another. Luke says that Anna was a prophetess, and that Simeon had the Holy Spirit upon him (a special phenomenon, I should bring up, which is rarely mentioned throughout scripture, usually reserved for certain people at certain times for certain reasons [like King David during his reign]). God revealed to Simeon and Anna that the Messiah was among them because out of all the people in the temple, they seem to be the only ones who truly walked with God. Luke says that Anna, who was probably around ninety-seven freaking years old, never even left the temple. Most people that age don’t ever leave the hospital. And that’s over 2000 years later with modern medicine. It was a true miracle that this woman was even alive back then. I am convinced that she was kept alive literally by the presence of God in her life. These two were wholly and utterly dedicated to God. How could they miss Him? When God was moving around them, they could see what He was doing and recognize His fingerprint, simply because they were so in tune with the things of God. It’s like having a friend of many years. Wouldn’t you recognize their voice from behind you if you heard it? In the same way, the mysteries of God weren’t mysteries to them. They knew what God was up to. And so, in the very place where all sought out God, only Simeon and Anna recognized the Christ among them. The rest just went through the motions.

Okay, that’s our three groups we can learn from. But what exactly do we want to take away from these people? That’s what I want to dig into now. So, let’s review what we’ve gone over with our fresh, new, and practical outlook; Here’s “Tyler’s Three-Step Program for not Missing the Messiah.”

Learn from the shepherds: Humility is where Christ lives!

When I give people directions to my house, it usually goes something like this: “When you feel lost, good, you’re almost there. Keep going until the fear of being stranded in the middle of nowhere sets in, then take the next left, we have the red barn with the green roof.” But how do you get to where Jesus lives? I’ll tell you: down. Just go straight down. Down, down, down. Keep going down until every human on earth is above you. Once you hit that place of total humility, look just to your side: Jesus is right there next to you. Like I’ve said like a hundred-bajillion times already, Jesus belongs so far above us we could never reach. But He came in the humblest form of all. In fact, it’s misleading that anyone could truly reach His level of humility either. I don’t think that’s possible, but unlike going up, we can get close enough going downwards.

You see, the people of Israel were so ridiculously busy clip-clopping around on their high horses that Jesus flew right under their radar. They looked to the sky for their Messiah, but He came in a barn. Here’s the point: Stop trying to achieve holiness. If you think you can go all super religious and somehow that’ll bring you closer to God, you’re dead wrong. In fact, you’re going in the opposite direction. God’s economy is totally backwards, and it’s so much better that way; up is down and down is up. When you stop serving yourself and stop thinking that if you just do this and that and the other thing that you’ll be closer to God, and when you just let go of your own pride in that you think you can achieve holiness, then you’ll be in a much better place. Stop trying to achieve godliness and start serving others. In that scenario, God will reveal Himself to you. If you lower yourself, He’ll be there right next to you, I promise.

When I think about this, I think about Missions Trips. Every time I’ve made the decision to just drop everything else and go with God’s people and help someone in need, the way God moves becomes so obvious to me. How could I miss Him? He’s moving everywhere, and submitting ourselves to be His pawn is the best way to watch His board.

Learn from the Magi: Study the Word and Study the World so You can Use the Word to Change the World.

Like I said, the Magi were very studious. Not only did they do the extremely difficult job of star-watching, they also studied the literary works they had access to very carefully. When they saw a star in the books and looked up and saw a star in the sky, that’s when everything fit together. Remember, the Jews, who were spending their days memorizing and meditating on scripture, totally missed the star that was indicating the birth of the Messiah. And there were probably loads of astrologers who saw the star and didn’t have the prophecy that explained it. Both components were needed to find Jesus.

Similarly, in our lives, we can’t just spend all our time in the world, or even spend all our time in scripture. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Yeah, I said that. Everyone always says, “I don’t read that book enough.” For 99% it’s true. But there actually is such a thing as too much scripture. You can study the Bible day-in and day-out, and that would be super cool. You’d learn a lot and probably enjoy yourself quite a bit, it truly is a fascinating book. But it doesn’t count for crap if you can’t use it for something. This is why the Bible doesn’t reveal all of the secrets of the universe. It just tells us enough. Why? Because we will have eternity to learn about God and His creation. The Bible will become obsolete one day. It is a tool that we use to spread the love and forgiveness of Jesus while we are still here on earth. If you read scripture and it doesn’t change you, or if it doesn’t do the world any good that you read it, it was rather pointless wasn’t it? And conversely, if you spent your whole life without the tools that scripture offered you, you didn’t do much good that way either, did you? You must find a balance, and that balance will change from person to person and from mission to mission. You have to read scripture and read the world around you and ask, “How do these fit together? How can I make a change for the better with this?” When you do, God will move and I’m telling you right now that you’re going to see it happen. And when you read scripture and see how God operates in there, then investigate the world and see Him doing the same things here, you will truly be blessed because you didn’t miss how the Savior is working all around you.

Learn from Simeon and Anna: Walk with God and Expect to See Amazing Things!

This also makes me think of Missions Trips (Okay, everything makes me think of Missions Trips, if you’ve never done one you seriously need to). The thing with a Missions Trip is that you set aside everything that’s holding you back and just jump right into the place God made for you. And not only do you do it with God, you do it with His people. Where is God now? Do you know? God the Father is in heaven. God the Son is in heaven too. We don’t have the Shekinah Glory or Jesus on earth anymore. But we still have God, right in the hearts of Christians. The Holy Spirit lives within His people, so a really great way to experience God is to live with His people. But don’t just sit on your butts. It’s called walking with God, not sitting with God, or eating potluck with God; it’s called walking. It indicates action and intention. It’s more than casual. Would you call Anna, the total hardcore boss old-as-a-tree lady who fasted and prayed without ever leaving the temple, a “casual God follower?” Heck no! She was intentional, and God repaid her for that. And did you catch what she did after? Luke says she “told everyone who was seeking redemption in Jerusalem about Jesus.” Let me remind you that the temple was in Jerusalem. You know, the place where people who are seeking redemption go? Anna used every opportunity she got to point people to Jesus, even though He was a newborn who hadn’t done a thing impressive (at least that I’m aware of). That’s hardcore man.

You must walk with God every day. Read scripture, pray, and most importantly I think, do His will. Remember that account in John 4 about the woman at the well? In that conversation Jesus had with her, He used the example of “living water,” which was basically a satisfaction one could have by giving their life to Jesus. But to His followers, who had already given their lives to Him, He used the example of food. He said that serving God and doing His will (which was essentially evangelism) was what sustained Him, what filled and satisfied Him, and He urged His disciples to do the same. God doesn’t sleep, God doesn’t stop. You want to experience Him? You have to get out and work. Live with God in the missions field, whatever that may be for you. That might be something subtle, like your workplace. Or it could be something even more extreme than Anna, like Madagascar Motorcycle Evangelism (yeah that’s a real thing). Just don’t forsake the meeting of the church, and don’t stop reading and praying.

I should bring up, however, the fourth group that knew of Jesus’ birth. That group was His enemies, namely King Herod. Know this: The enemies of God are keenly aware of what He’s doing, not because they walk with Him but because they hate Him. It’s totally backwards that we allow them to know everything God is doing and try to stop Him, while we, the hands and feet of God, sit alone and are ignorant of what He’s doing in this world. We owe it to God to know Him better than His enemies.

And on that note, I charge you with this: Have a great Christmas! But don’t get caught up in all the extras. It would be tragic for you to get caught up in the lights and the gifts and all the other things that come with Christmas, as good as they might be, only to miss Jesus just like the people of His time did. There are tons of great taglines, and they’re all true: “Remember the reason for the season,” or “Put the CHRIST back in CHRISTmas!” Just don’t forget what it’s all about. Use this Christmas to get real about where you’re at with God and stop letting Him fly under your radar.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

-Tyler

Scriptures Used/Referenced

John Chapter 4

1 Kings 19:11-12

Luke 2:8-20

Matthew 2:1-12

Daniel 9:24-25

Numbers 24:17-19

Revelation 17:5

Luke 2:25-38

Exodus 13

Leviticus 4-5

*I have seen a theory that the star in the East was the Shekinah Glory of God, which very well may have been the case. However, the point still stands that only the Magi seem to have been aware of it, and it was certainly much later than Jesus’ birth.