Throughout the holiday season, Christians remind each other, ‘remember the reason for the season’. We see it on buttons, cards, posters, stationary and tracts. Stop for a moment and think about that holiday greeting. What IS the reason for the season?
Is the reason so we can buy gifts and give presents to those we love? So we can gather together with friends and family for fellowship?
So we can use gifts as opportunity to reveal the “reason for the season” to the underprivileged and the poor? Is the reason to celebrate the birth of the tiny “God baby” in a manger 2,000 years ago?
Just exactly, what IS the “real reason” for the season? The reason God created ‘us’ was to have a relationship with Him! Because of sin, mankind had lost our relationship with God. We celebrate the birth of Christ, but that was only a small part of the plan.
God loves us so much that he literally sacrificed His own son so we could have a relationship again. Then, He sent his Holy Spirit so we could have not just a relationship, but an intimate relationship! If we choose to have that relationship, recognizing Jesus as Lord, it will last throughout eternity, not just our life here on earth.
The next time we hear or say, ‘remember the reason’, look beyond the “baby in the manger moment” and see the eternal consequences of what was done that night in the stable, under the stars in Bethlehem. The reason for the season—was the cross—foregiveness for our sins; so we can have an intimate relationship with our Lord.
Philippians 2: 8-11 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®. Pradis:Phil 2:8. Grand Rapids: The Zondervan Corporation, © 1973, 1978, 1984.