Gift - the real Christmas story

Today is Christmas Day. It's a day of giving and receiving. But it's the day people find joy more in giving. And of course, Christmas Day is such an appropriate day for giving gift, because it commemorates the coming of a gift larger than life.

To start the real Christmas story, I'll go back in time, to about... the beginning.

In the beginning, God created everything that we see around us, in 5 days, and He created Man on the 6th day, ie Adam and Eve. And it was all very good. Then sin came in and separated Man away from God. (For more details, please read Genesis 1 - 3) As a result of sin, Man was banished from the Garden of Eden. However, God wanted always to have a personal relationship with man, because man was created precisely to have a personal relationship with God. Because of sin, man can't have a personal relationship with God anymore... until one day...

A few millennium after the fall of man, in a little town called Nazareth, there was this virgin girl called Mary. who was pledged to marry this carpenter called Joseph. One day, God sent an angel to Mary and said, 'Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.'

And so, Mary was pregnant, even without laying with her husband. And Joseph upon receiving a vision from an angel from God, decided to take the Child in Mary's womb as his own. Just then, as the Roman empire spanned across Europe and Asia Minor, which Nazareth was located, there was a population census commanded by Caesar to everyone to return to the land of their fathers. Joseph, being a descendant of David, the greatest king of the Israelites, had to therefore return to the hometown of David, Bethlehem, for the census and he brought Mary along.

Just as they reached Bethlehem after a few months of travelling, it was also time for Mary's child to be born. And so, while they were there, Mary gave birth to her firstborn - a son. She wrapped him up in cloth, and placed him in a manger, as there was no more place in the inn. And the son was name Jesus - the promised Messiah of the whole of Mankind.

'He's for all mankind' - Mary, from The Nativity Story.

And this is thus the true Christmas story. God gave His Son to the world, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. He came to give us life to the full, and to save us from sin.

Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship with God, through His Son, Jesus. Religions are man-made effort to reach God. However, God reached down for us through Jesus. That's relationship. God is so eager to have a relationship with us that He reached out to us first. He never intended us to practice religion, He meant for us to have a personal relationship with Him. If people would just understand this.

If people would just understand this.

And because He gave the greatest gift of all.

We can celebrate Christmas.

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