Jesus came to our world not to bring evergreen trees and mistletoe or strings of colored lights, but salvation to sinners, healing for the distressed, and life for the dead. At Jesus’ birth an angel announced: “The Savior . . . has been born tonight in Bethlehem.” Many witnesses validated His first advent. To the shepherds of Bethlehem the angel proclaimed “the most joyful news ever announced.” The Wise Men of the East were there, and Mary and Joseph, and Anna and Simeon, who miraculously learned of Jesus’ arrival. Christ proclaimed to all that He is heaven’s gift to our world. It was a gift wrapped not in silver or gold paper, but “in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12).
The magnitude of the meaning and the glory of Bethlehem escapes words. It involved the whole universe, yet its events took place in a lowly cattle shed on our planet—just a speck in the great universe. The wonder was not so much that a child was born of a virgin—though that was humanly impossible—but that a human being gave birth to God. Through Mary, God’s quickening Spirit became flesh; the One whom the heaven of heavens could not contain was imprisoned in a body of clay. Jesus was “the seed of the woman” for whom Eve had so hopefully looked. He was the fulfillment of prophecies proclaimed by holy people since the entrance of sin at Eden. The “seed of Abraham,” He would bless all families of the earth. The royal “seed of David,” He would sit on David’s throne forever.
Because of God’s great love, He gave us Jesus. Ours forever, He came as a Child born to us, as a Son given to us, and yet His name is “the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). Who can deny that this was the most wonderful event in the world’s history—God’s greatest gift to humanity? He entered the world to get near to us and to show us God’s love and to give us eternal life.
H.M.S. Richards, Jr., The Best News Ever
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