The Story of Christmas

Because of sin, man was separated from God and was destined to die.

When Jesus is born, his nativity is marked by a chorus of angels who direct shepherds to his cradle. The angel informed Mary and Joseph that Mary would give birth to a child who would be called the Son of God.

After Jesus was born angels kept appearing – one appeared to some shepherds looking after their flock in a field to tell them about the Son of God’s birth.

With Christ, God chose to send His Son in our form, condescending to embrace us where we live. It’s what the season of Christmas is about, after all.

FESTIVE FRENZY When do the Boxing Day 2017 sales start and what are the best deals?

What is of greater concern is that Christmas has become the ultimate holiday for committed hedonists.

Here’s a plain answer to part of the conundrum why prayers are not answered – if you don’t believe in God who bestows all gifts, including faith, and brings forth miracles, there is no way possible for you to receive any of them.

Starting today, we have 364 days to celebrate the coming of our Savior before next Christmas hits.

What are the “should haves” during the Christmas season?

May all of us have the pleasure of unwrapping this, God’s greatest gift to all creation. The things and activities enumerated would entail high cost and extremely expensive which would burden us to its maxim. It hurts when people let us down. Our personal spiritual enrichment and familial and communitarian growth and development are the more meaningful and lasting ones than these external gratifications. When it came time for brainstorming the church’s Christmas service, she shared the idea of telling the Christmas story through Mary’s perspective. How comforting and reassuring it is to know Immanuel, God is with us and wants to be in us. This Christmas remember why He was born. For some, Christmas is a time for the family and with the family. He had to come to this earth to shed His blood for our redemption. He showed us how to love selflessly and even sacrificially.

We see Jesus in the children of unemployed parents who struggle to offer their children a secure and peaceful future. She wanted my sister and me to be thankful and appreciative of the gift of having Jesus Christ, our Savior, in our lives. God yearns for that permanent reunion, and His hand keeps giving us the opportunities to choose it. We can’t. But we can do something in our own little ways and with the simple things we give in love. On this festive day, let us ask the Lord for peace for Jerusalem and for all the Holy Land. We can hold fast to His promises and not doubt Him or His Word. We must produce, whether goods or services, to the full extent of our capacities.

After his resurrection, Christ clarified for his disciples that all that had happened was the fulfillment of Scriptures: God’s requirement of the sacrifice of a lamb for the forgiveness of sin and how he, Jesus, was “the lamb slain before the foundation of the world” referred to in the Bible.

We see Jesus in the faces of Syrian children still marked by the war that, in these years, has caused such bloodshed in that country.

The angels announcing Christ’s birth speak to those among us whose innocence is threatened by those who see no reason for their existence, in particular those who are disabled and whose hearts are childlike in their lack of guile and who have been imaged as angels by painters over the centuries. The good news is all about Jesus.

The reality of Christmas, the lesson of the Incarnation, is that God loves us so much that God became one of us. In faith, we have the gift of freedom, we’re liberated by forgiveness and blessed to find new goal and hope in life. May the Incarnate Word transform us in love and hope.

John’s identity is defined by Jesus and his objective is to herald Jesus’ identity to the world as certainly as the angels announced Jesus birth in Bethlehem.

Gift is the expression of love in action.

Merry Christmas and a peaceful 2018 to all!