Even though people around the world celebrate
Christmas on December 25, that was probably not the actual day on which Jesus
was born. Many scholars believe that Jesus was more likely to have been born in
September.

But the Christian celebration of Christmas is not
about getting the date right. No one really knows the actual date. The
celebration is about the fact that God loved humanity so much that he sent his
Son in the flesh as one of us for our salvation.

In Matthew 1:23, the child Jesus is called, “God
with us.”

In Mark 1:1, Jesus is called the Son of God.

In Luke 2:32, Jesus is called a light for
revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to the people of Israel.

In John 1:4, Jesus is called the life that was the
light of men.

Christmas
is about God’s love for us. It is about God’s undying commitment to us. It is
about God becoming one of us and drawing us into himself. It is about Jesus
sharing with us his perfect relationship with the Father, as the Father’s beloved
Son.

“For God so loved
the world,” John 3:16-17, tells us, “that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not
send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through
him.”

And
Christmas is about hope:

John 1: 9-13 says, “The
true light that gives light to everyone 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” (John 1:9-13 NIV).

May this Christmas season be a wonderful time of joy in
which we remember and celebrate what the birth of Jesus Christ means for all
the world.

I’m Joseph Tkach, SPEAKING OF LIFE.