What a transformation comes over practically every aspect of people’s lives at that very special time of the year—the Christmas season. Families gather, parties are planned, holiday activities are organized. And as normal commerce takes a pause, shopping, spending, and borrowing increase in velocity—and even approach a frenzy.
The Christmas season has come to assume a general, non-partisan, quasi-religious, and even non-religious nature for some. True, the thoughts of many do turn reverently to that prophesied event that took place two thousand years ago: the virgin birth of the child Jesus, called the “Son of the Highest” (Luke 1:32), the Christ, who would “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Then very quickly at the close of the Christmas season, the hiatus in normal living ends, and for most, life resumes its familiar pace for another year.
But for the discerning heart, Christmas is not just a commemorative “season.” It’s a timeless, perpetual awakening experience; a challenging, comforting, purifying, unifying, educating, saving experience. Yes, it commemorates the birth of the immaculate Jesus. But what his virgin birth illustrates, the law of creation that it demonstrates, holds a promise for us all. It announces the great truth that God is, in reality, our Father, the Father of all. John explains, “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God” (John 1:12).
