Christmas wishes.
A "wish" is a strong feeling of wanting something to happen. In "TheChristmas Story" despite warnings he might shoot his eye out, Ralphy wanted that Red Rider BB Gun. In "Christmas Vacation" Clark Griswold wanted a big bonus from work in order to put in a swimming pool. In "The Miracle on 34th Street" little Susan wanted the home of her dreams in the suburbs. In "Christmas Shoes" Nathan wanted to buy shoes for his terminally ill mother, but didn’t have enough money. In "It’s a Wonderful Life" a depressed and suicidal George Bailey was searching for significance and hope.
There is something special about Christmas. This season is the focus of all our hopes and dreams. Children know this better than anyone. By now they have spent months honing their desires and pleading their case to mom, dad, and Santa Claus!
I read some statistics about Santa Claus this past week.
•The weight of Santa's sleigh loaded with one Beanie Baby for every kid on earth: 333,333 tons.
•Number of reindeer required to pull a 333,333 ton sleigh: 214,206 -- plus Rudolph.
•To deliver all his gifts in one night (and fulfill all those Christmas wishes) Santa would have to make 822.6 visits per second, sleighing at 3,000 times the speed of sound. At that speed Santa and his reindeer would burst into flames instantaneously. I’ll tell you how he does it. He dumps all those Beanie Babies at our house.
A "wish" is a strong feeling of wanting something to happen. Whenwe are younger, most of our wishes are material. And many of our wishes are self-centered."I want.I wish." As you grow older, hopefully this changes as the deeper meaning of Christmas sets in. Think back to when you were ten years old. What was your biggest wish? What is your biggest wish now?
Every Christmas wish has a price tag.
When you are a child you don’t realize that every wish has a price tag. A wish can only happen if a cost is paid—and boy do the costs add up at Christmas time! Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Best Buy, Lowes, Mendards, Kohls, JC Penney. I saw that one out often people are behind on their mortgage payments this Christmas. The average household has almost 10,000 dollarsin credit card debt. Last month saw record unemployment. It’s not easy for families to absorb the cost of Christmas.
When it comes to our wishes, we spare no length. We will go into debt. We will mortgage our future. Some even steal. But let’s not lose our perspective. Christmas isn’t really about our wishes. Christmas is aboutthe wish. Christmas is about aligning our hearts with God’s wish for us, not our wishes for ourselves.
THEChristmas wish.
We read aboutthe wishin 1 Timothy 2:1-4 (NIV)."I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior,who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."
God’s wish is that, "all men (are) to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth." 2 Peter 3:9 reminds us that God doesn’t want (wish) anyone to perish, but wants (wishes) everyone to repent. Prayer is just one way we can attune our hearts with God’s Christmas wish. Christmas is about God acting in history to save us in order to redirect our paths to eternal life. Life isn’t found in the abundance of things we want to accumulate during Christmas. Life is found in the life of Christ.
The cost of Christmas.
For every wish, there is a cost and a price to be paid. On my side of the family there is always a big debate each Christmas. The debate centers on the price we are willing to pay for one another's wishes. There is a limit to what we will spend per person and per household. As our family grows, the limit gets smaller and smaller. Somehow the gift of my presence just isn’t enough.
There was no limit to the price God was willing to pay for his Christmas wish of saving all men. What cost was God willing to pay? 1 Timothy 2:5-6 (NIV) reveals the true cost of Christmas.This passagesays, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time."
Philippians 2:5-11 (NIV) tells us about the attitude of Christ when he tried to fulfill God's wish for the world."Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Here are a few excerpts from John 1:1-14 (NIV)."In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."
"The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
Christmas is never the same once we realize the price God paid to make it a reality.
When we begin tograsp God’s Christmas wish and begin to grasp the extraordinary price God was willing to pay to make it a reality, Christmas is never the same. In 1 Timothy 2:7 (NIV) Paul says, "And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles."
At Christmas, we can think about all our wishes orwe can open our eyes God’s eternal love.It can be getting a Christmas bonus from the boss or receiving eternal treasures in Christ.It can be a miracle on 34th street or receiving an eternal home.It can be shoes for this life or walking with God for eternity.It can be searching for significance in this life or tasting the wonderful life God has in store for those in Christ.
For Paul, Christmas was about becoming a herald, a Christmas missionary, and a teacher to proclaim the good news of Christ to the ends of the earth. Christmas isn’t about amassing debt. It's about Christ forgiving us and paying our debt! It isn’t about wrapping up gifts. It'sabout unwrapping the gift of God for ourselves and our families. It isn’t about decorated Christmas trees. It's about the old wooden cross decorated with the broken body or our Lord—an emblem of God’s love.
This Christmas is full of possibilities. It's full of possibilities because of God’s wish and because of the cost God was willing to pay to make his wish reality.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (NIV) says,"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
We can fulfill God’s Christmas wish by responding to his gift of life through Jesus Christ.