In four short days it will be the most anticipated day of the entire year.  Children will awaken early and beg their parents to get up so they can open presents.  The sad reality is that it will all be over in a flash and the children will be left playing with the boxes, most likely.

I am like most children in that I love to give and receive presents.  So many conservative Christians exhort that Christmas is not about the presents.  I agree; but, let’s take a look at the issue.  We are celebrating the Incarnation of Christ.  This means that God became a man and lived in flesh just like us.  He is God’s gift to you and I.  So, I say that it is not about the gifts that we exchange with one another.  It is all about the Gift given to you and I in the stable in Bethlehem of Judea.

Look at Luke 2:12, “And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”  We have been given the Greatest Gift of all.  Jesus came as a babe and was swaddled or wrapped in swaddling clothes.  Those clothes are strips of cloth.  I imagine a young mother wrapping each little finger and each little toe and then the entire body of this Babe of all babes.  He was wrapped in grave clothes.  Even in His birth His mission is foretold.

Jesus came to give Himself to die in our place so that we might have our sin forgiven and that is the greatest gift that anyone can ever receive.  Will you trust Him today and receive this free gift.  It cost Jesus everything.  It is free; but, definitely not cheap.

So, how are you doing?