The Gift of Presence

The average holiday spending per person in 2022 was $932. How much will it be in 2023? How much will you spend? These amounts will vary from person to person. Various factors will ultimately determine the amount spent. Suffice to say, people will spend lots of money buying Christmas presents during the Christmas season.

While we still give some attention to the birth of Christ, for some people giving and receiving presents trumps all.

This blog is not intended to be a condemnation of giving and receiving presents. Please don't read it that way. I want to draw a contrast between giving and receiving presents and the far superior gift of presence.

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God was giving us the gift of presence, His very presence in our sinful, fallen world.

John begins the fourth gospel with a clear, definitive statement about how God manifest His presence in the world through the birth of Jesus. The writer of the gospel of John does not give us the stories of the events surrounding the birth of Christ such as the wise men worshipping the Christ child and presenting their gifts, the shepherds abiding in the fields keeping watch over their flocks and being serenaded by a hosts of angels or how God sent angels to speak to Mary and Joseph giving them individual insight and assurance concerning the birth of Christ.

Jesus is not a little baby lying in a manger wrapped in swadding cloths when John begins his gospel. Rather, He is the eternal Word who is with God and is God. He is the eternal Word who becomes flesh, living presence, and dwells among us.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. ...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5, 14 NKJV)

John presented the birth of Christ just as surely as the writers of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, presented the birth of Christ. John's presentation of Christ amplified the words of the writer of Matthew 1:23 who wrote, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us." God became with us when the eternal Word became flesh.

What is the essence of Christmas? Is it presents galore? Is it beautiful lights and dazzling decorations? Is it joyful festivities and Christmas parties? Is it Christmas programs, plays and cantatas?

NO! IT IS NONE OF THESE THINGS!

All of these things have been incorporated into our celebration of Christmas but none of them represent the essence of Christmas. It can be argued that they all have a legtimate place or make a contribution to our celebration of Christmas. They are simply not the essence.

THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTMAS IS THE GIFT OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN OUR SIN CURED, FALLEN WORLD.

In the Old Testament God gave us commandments and laws. They were tudors to help guide us in the walk of life. He also gave us prophets to proclaim to us God's message for their time and our time. Certainly, God made His presence visible and known to His people, but what God did not do in the Old Testament was to manifest His presence in a person who would become fully man and at the same time remain fully God. This is exactly what He did in the person of Jesus Christ. This is what John 1:14 declares.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

A casual observation of our world today testifies to our need of the presence of God in our world. It is more than "what we need." It is "the only real hope for our world." To say that the presence of God is the only real hope for our world is a very dogmatic statement and not one that I make lightly or flippantly. I say it with a concerned heart and I say it because I believe it.

I could cite a litiny of problems, the ones you hear cloaked in ideology and rheteric, every day on television news channels. Social media and now AI lend their voices to the fray. As you listen and have listened to this constant barrage of carefully deciminated information, real changes and genuine solutions seem to be elusive and unavailable.

The world to which Jesus was born as a little baby was not totally unlike our world. It definitely had its problems. Consider the Roman occupation and rule that existed when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Herod was a part of that Roman rule, and he tried his best to kill Jesus in his infancy. It was to that world with its turmoil and unrest that Jesus came.

HIS PRESENCE WAS THE ANSWER THEN AND IS THE ANSWER NOW!

Merry Christmas to you and yours. Give and receive presents. Celebrate with your Christian family and biological family. Enjoy the lights and decorations. By all means enjoy the special Christmas musicals and plays at your church. But as you do all these things, make sure you do this one most important thing.

CELEBRATE THE GIFT OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD!

How does one celebrate the gift of the presence of God? First and foremost, you receive Him into your heart and life. How do you do this? It's very simple. You confess and repent of your sins and then you place your faith in Christ and invite Him into your life.

John the one who characterized the birth of Christ as the eternal Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us wrote these words in John 1:12, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name."

WILL YOU JOIN WITH ME IN SAYING, "THANK GOD FOR THE GIFT OF HIS PRESENCE!