Words by Lexy Sauvé // Image by Molly Flanagan

I’ll admit it. Every Christmas season I have to be disciplined about remembering what we’re really celebrating. My human nature quickly gets lost in in the glittery Christmas globes and the rat race of finding and buying the perfect gifts for our family members. When you’re short on cash and decorative abilities, like I am, this season often becomes a source of depression. I don’t at all believe that’s the Lord’s heart for Christmas Day. His heart for Christmas, in giving his only beloved Son as a gift to this world, was to give us a reason to celebrate. This is why the angels proclaimed to the lowly shepherds in the field that the birth of a Savior brought with it good news and great joy (Luke 2:8–11)!

In order to properly understand the reason for the celebration that’s connected with the birth of this child, we have to better understand our human nature.

King David tells us in Psalm 51:5 that from the very moment of our conception, our hearts are wayward. We were all conceived in sin! This is indeed a problem because in the very next verse he says that God desires truth in our inward parts. But we know this is never, not one second into our existence, something that we possess. From the very moment we burst onto this scene called life, we are in need of a Savior.

Enter baby Jesus, the newborn King!

Jesus had a nature very different from ours. His very name proclaims the mission he came to earth to fulfill. Jesus means Savior! 1 John 3:5 tells us a truth about Christ totally worth celebrating this morning: he came as a sinless human being, the only one in history, so that he might carry away the heavy yoke of sin that was crushing us! Psalm 51:10 records David’s cry to God when he asks him to create in him a clean heart. This is David showing his understanding that his nature is corrupt, and he is in need of a brand new one that can only come from the Lord.

Luke 19:10 again states the mission of Jesus coming to earth very clearly: “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” Jesus humbled himself in the first cradle, the womb, and came into this world to save us by living a perfect life, so that he, who knew no sin, might become sin for us, in order for us to become the righteousness of Christ! That is certainly good news!

Let our tired souls be comforted this Christmas morning. Jesus came down from heaven, giving up, for a time, the worship of angels that he rightly deserves, in order to live a perfect life and take away the sins of all those who believe in him! Believer and unbeliever alike can take comfort and refuge from their heavy burdens by believing in the truth of Jesus as their Savior. This is a life-giving message worth celebrating! May we choose to do so by the giving of gifts, the sipping of hot chocolate, and the company of family and friends, always keeping God’s priceless gift in our sight: Jesus Christ, the Savior born of the virgin.