Scripture: John 3:16
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life.
Thought for the Day: Roy L. Smith was a very well known minister, serving the largest Methodist church in the world during the 1930’s. He wrote a syndicated column that made him a household name. One of my favorite quotes from Smith is appropriate for this time of the year, though challenging as well. He wrote:
He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.
John 3:16 is probably the best known verse in all of scripture, but I had never really associated it with this time of the year. Then upon reading it again only because I was rereading the first five chapters of John, the word ‘gave’ stood out to me. Christmas is all about God giving the fullness of God to the world in the form of a child. This is what we must wrestle with if we wish for Christmas to reside within us. What does it mean for God to give the Christ to the world? It sounds a bit nonsensical? Yet every year, we come together and gaze upon an infant lying in a feeding trough and declare, “This is God!”
Prayer: May the message of Christmas break free from all the cultural definitions, so that the true gift that you give, O Lord of Heaven and Earth, can begin to dwell within me…and the world. Amen.
