Why is Christmas so important? Why is Jesus’ coming into the world so important? Why is it a time when we leave our warm houses and journey to church to worship this newborn king? Let me answer that in a story.
On Christmas morning, a pastor fell asleep in his study. He dreamt about a world where the Savior had never come. In his dream he found himself looking through his home, but there were no stockings, no wreaths of holly. He walked out to the street. No church with spires pointing heavenward could be seen. Back in his library every book about Christ had disappeared from the shelves.
A knock at the door brought a request in his dream, to come to a dying mother. At her bedside he said, “I have something here that will comfort you.” He opened his Bible to look for a familiar verse but now his Bible ended at Malachi. There was no Gospel, no promise of life beyond the grave. He could only bow his head and weep in hopeless desperation. Two days later he stood beside the grave to conduct this mother's funeral. But he had no word of comfort nor message of a glorious resurrection. He found all he could say was “ashes to ashes and dust to dust.” After one long, last, final farewell, in his dream he burst into sobbing.
Suddenly, nearby music woke this pastor from his sleep. He looked around and when he realized what he was hearing he gave out a great shout of joy. The choir in his church was in the next room singing, “O come, all ye faithful, Come and behold Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!”
Had Christ not come we would have no New Testament, no Gospel, no way of knowing God’s way for our lives, no forgiveness of sin, no hope of resurrection.
But we all know that Christ has come -- that Christmas is true and because of that fact, we have hope today. Emmanuel -- God is with us, giving us a hope that literally knows no bounds.
As Christmas fast approaches, I pray that we can all come to a new understanding of the importance of Christmas. Without it -- we are lost; with it – we are never lost.
~ God bless, Dan