The True Meaning of Christmas

When Mary birthed Jesus 'twas in a cow's stall
With wise men and farmers and shepherds and all
But high from God's heaven, a star's light did fall
And the promise of ages it then did recall.

for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11)

This is why we celebrate Christmas, to celebrate Christ's birth, but that's not the true meaning of Christmas. Babies are born all the time, in hospitals, in homes, in barns and in mangers. The true meaning of Christmas is why one very important baby was born in a little middle east backwater village on a lonely night, the date unrecorded in the depths of time so we had to settle on a day to remember why God took off his mantle of Holy righteousness and power and was born to a virgin in a rude manger. 

But the true meaning of Christmas is why God came to earth in the first place. He didn't come to heal the sick and walk on water and change water into wine, but he did that and more. The true meaning of Christmas can be found in the story of the lost birds.

A man stayed home while his family went to Christmas Eve services. He didn't believe in God, the whole concept was silly to him, so he stayed home and read a book by the fire and sipped his tea while the snow howled around the farmhouse he lived in. As he read he heard a banging and thumping resonate around the house and as he investigated, he found that there were birds outside huddled against the blowing snow, they were obviously lost and terrified, befuddeled by their own failure to fly south before the storm hit. They noticed the fire through the window and were flying at the house trying to get to the warm fire but were thudding against the window. 

The man went outside and opened the barn door then tried to shoo the birds toward the barn where they could find shelter from the wind and cold and snow but they kept scattering, fluttering off in all directions before returning to crash into the window. He tried multiple things, trying to herd the birds with branches and waving blankets at them, that did no good. He even tried to leave a trail of bread crumbs to the barn but the birds would not go in the barn. "If only I could become a bird for just a short period of time!" he thought in exasperation, "then I could communicate with them and save them..."

And the light went on inside his head, in that moment of exasperation the man suddenly realized that he just discovered Jesus' entire ministry. God came down to earth because we were lost, wallowing in our sin. When He gave us instructions we couldn't understand Him because we were so rebellions toward Him, rejecting Him and His words. So He came to us in a form we could commune with to lead us away from sin. His birth was merely a step in God's plan of salvation, a step leading to His death on the cross to pay the penalty for our sinful nature.

And that's what the true meaning of Christmas is; sin. If there were no sin, if we weren't such rebellious, self absorbed, prideful sinners there would be no need to come to save us. But we are sinners, and because God loves us He came to save us from our sin. No sin - no Christmas, it's odd thinking that the true meaning of Christmas is our sin, but it's something we truly must remember.

Joyeux noël mes amis!