The Awesomeness of Christmas

It has been awhile since I have posted on here. Our youth group did an All-Nighter event which took up most of my time with planning and running it. But it was amazing. We had 170 teens from both churches I work at hanging out at the church all night! Totally worth the work and stress put into it!

Christmas is only 4 days away which has gotten me thinking about the significance that Jesus actually came to the earth. Usually we here things like "the real reason for the season" or "having a birthday party for Jesus" which seems kind of corny to me. But as I've been thinking about Christmas I am realizing how amazing it is that Jesus came to the earth. In the Old Testament we read about the prophets, which were basically people that God chose to use to speak to his people. God spoke in lots of different ways in the Old Testament and it must have been amazing hearing from him. But the time from the last prophet spoke to when Jesus came was 400 years!!! 400 years of silence from God. As the people of God it must have been so hard going from hearing God speak to absolute silence for such a long time. No wonder the Jewish people were longing and looking forward to when the Messiah would come.

Then God broke the silence after 400 years by sending an angel to a young girl, probably only 14 years old. In Luke 1:30-33 it says, "But the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.'"

After 400 years of silence God revealed his plan to send his son into the world. That is why Christmas is such a significant time of remembering the importance of Jesus' birth. After 400 years of silence God chose to break into history and send his son, Jesus, to redeem people back to himself. That is why Jesus came. That little baby we read Christmas stories about is the savior of the world. He defeated sin and darkness and brought people back into relationship with God. That is why Christmas is so awesome! It is a chance to remember God's plan of salvation and how he loved us so much to send his son as a sacrifice for our sin.