The Christmas Story

         Christmas is a time for parties, shopping, presents, decorations, family, friends, vacation, traveling, Santa, cookies, excitement, snow, music, relaxing, and so much more. Of course, as the gift bags and Christmas cards prominently advertise, joy, peace, and love are what we should be feeling during this busy season. And never forget the "real reason for the season" which, according to most secular sources, is giving. Yes, giving is a great thing, and it certainly should be a focus of Christmastime. But you can't tell me for a second that just plain old giving is why we go through all this bustle. No one stood up 400 years ago and said, "Let's start a lavish holiday during which people give each other gifts and give to charities and then feel good about giving." No, the reason for Christmas actually began a long time ago.

         Years and years ago, God created the world. (Yes, I am being serious, and no, as you've probably figured out, this has nothing to do about St. Nicholas.) When God created the world, everything was perfect. The first people, Adam and Eve, did nothing wrong, or to use the less euphemistic wording, had never sinned. Long story short, the devil tempted them, Adam sinned, and sin entered the world. (By the way, the answer to why bad things happen to "good" people, or children, or whoever--well, one reason is simply because sin is in the world.) The world became not such a great place to live after that. I mean, it's not like a meteorite wiped everything out, but the world started deteriorating, like it's doing today. And not to mention how God's relationship with man was drastically blocked because God is perfect and cannot tolerate sin. Man became sinful, and the punishment for sin is death. Not just death, but after that an ETERNITY away from God, which happens in a very real place called hell. This became a reality that man faced. And instead of wiping everything out like He could have done and starting over, God started a plan of redemption for man, or in other words, a way to bring man back to God. Why? Why would God go through so much trouble just for some traitorous, broken little sinners? Because He loved them. Because He loves us.

         So for thousands of years, through thousands of people and places, God worked on His plan. It's all laid out in the Bible, which God had people write to let future generations know what He'd done. God wanted everyone to be ready when he put his plan in action, so He had prophets tell about the Savior who God was going to send to take away everyone's sin. Before the Savior came, people made animal sacrifices to cover up their sin. The time when God's plan came to earth was around 2000 years ago. Listen up, because this is the part that has to do with Christmas. Have you heard of Jesus? Chances are you have. Well, Jesus was a real person. He was the Savior and the focal point of God's plan. God sent Jesus on earth in the form of a baby, in order so that when He grew up, He would save the people from their sin. He was born in extraordinary circumstances--his mother was a virgin. Christmas is the time to celebrate the birth of the most important man in the Christian faith, hence the name CHRISTmas. (Just a note: Jesus wasn't created when he was born, but he had been with God since the beginning of time and before. He is part of the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, which means Jesus actually is God, but in the flesh. So because He was God and man, Jesus could take people's sins away.)

         Now Jesus' birth had been prophesied about by the Jews for a long time before He was born, so you'd expect that people would be excited when He finally came. Some were, but didn't realize that Jesus was the Savior. Many of the people who did not believe in Jesus were Jewish leaders, who, as Jesus grew up and began teaching about salvation through Himself, became very vocal about their disapproval of this man's "pretending" to be God. It's find it incredible that they refused to believe that Jesus was who he said He was after all those years of prophesy and other proofs. Jesus even performed amazing miracles to multitudes of people. Thousands did believe in Jesus, and were saved. But the Jewish leaders wanted to put down this "heretic" so badly that they handed Him over to the Romans to be crucified. They thought they had won, but Jesus' death was actually the main part of God's plan. It was the way that God would finally get rid of man's sin. When Jesus died, he actually took our punishment away from us; He actually took our sins and died for them.

         Jesus didn't stay dead, though. Three days later, He broke free from the chains of death and lived again. This is obviously a huge deal. For one, Jesus didn't die again, so He's still alive, in Heaven. That's why Christians are joyful: their Savior is alive, and has saved them from Hell and sins and suffering, and someday Christians will go to heaven.

         But on the flip side, people who are not Christians will not go to heaven. They won't just expire and be put in the ground. No, they'll see that they were wrong and that Jesus is the only way to heaven. God will reject them, and non-Christians will spend eternity in hell. That's forever, never-ending, no release. That's a never-ending death without God. That is the last death. That is where you are going if you are not a Christian.

         But becoming a Christian is not hard! Jesus already did all the work! Please understand that while Jesus did die for everyone's sins, you have to ask Him to forgive you. And Jesus will forgive anything if you come to Him. Even if you've done something so horrible that you won't even forgive yourself, Jesus will forgive you. The thing that's so great is that Christianity isn't limited to anyone: not to just people who've never murdered anyone, not just to people who do what they're supposed to, not just to "do-gooders." "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23). So Jesus came to save everyone, because everyone has sinned.

         That's the reason the birth of Christ is important. Jesus willingly came into the world to save it. "For God so loved