This is my beautiful mother and me about three weeks after my birth. I am the firstborn, so it was her first Christmas with a child.  I was a newborn and had no clue about the purpose of a tree or Christmas cards, or presents, but it didn’t matter to Mom. She and Dad decorated anyway, and with the excitement of a newborn, that Christmas almost 40 years ago, was a special one for them.

We are just days away from celebrating another year of Christ’s birth, and I pray that this year we are humbled and floored at the reason we put up a tree, send cards, and decorate.

Over two thousand years ago, there was a dark time of unrest on the earth.  The world was separated from God because of sin.  In an effort to rescue those enslaved by sin, light pierced the darkness and came into the world as a baby boy.  His name was Jesus, and he came to redeem us all from the enemy’s grip and became the sacrifice to provide a way to reconcile us to our Heavenly Father.

As an adult, I now comprehend the reason for the tree, cards, and presents.  It is in celebration of my Savior, and I pass that knowledge onto my own children so that they, too, can marvel at why Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year.

^” But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.” Galatians 4:4, 5 (NIV)

~Betsy