This season, help your unsaved neighbors and friends to recognize the truth, the stunning fact that God himself came to rescue them.
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SHAUNA: This is Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. This time of year, everyone agrees that Christmas is enchanting.
JONI: Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and you can’t deny it. When December rolls around; when you wake up in the morning, you step outside and see your breath, feel the frost, the crunch of fresh fallen snow; when you listen to the quiet and see ice sparkling on branches like diamonds, it just swells your heart with delight, doesn’t it? Christmas is on the way, and your joy rises with every carol you hear, every card you receive. There is something inexplicably charming and other-worldly about Christmas. Giving gifts, sharing smiles, hot coffee and cocoa, happy surprises, visits from friends, and, well, just the wonder of it all. And that’s a good word for it: Christmas is filled with wonder. It is a feeling experienced by even those who do not know Christ. It is something even unbelievers sense – they just sense it – this time of year. How is that possible?
Well, I remember my friend David Mathis saying that all people sense this enchantment because “…at the very heart [of Christmas],” he says, “is the essence of the supernatural: God himself entering our realm. At Christmas, God ‘came down,’ not just to observe human sin and inflict righteous judgment from the outside, but to be human and [to] work his mercy from the inside.” And here’s what’s fascinating to me. Think on this: Why does Christmas have this magnetism in a society that has tried everything it can to empty it of its true meaning? Because even people who do not know Christ sense something profoundly different about this special time of year. David Mathis goes on to say that “Even non-believers sense that the real magic of Christmas is not in gifts and goodies; those who do not know God realize there’s something more to it all than homespun traditions with indoor coziness and outdoor snow. What lies at the heart of Christmas, and whispers to every soul is the most stunning and significant fact that God himself became one of us.”
When it comes to that glorious fact, here’s the difference for non-believers, though. They try to “suppress the truth” as it says in Romans 1:18. The truth about Christmas is so evident in Christmas cards, the words to Christmas carols and more. But Romans says that non-believers “suppress the truth.” They know Christmas is different. They know something’s going on that’s beyond them because “…since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power, his divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse.” So, people don’t even need a Christmas card or a carol. They can look up into the brilliant, winter, night sky. They can wake up in the morning; they can step outside, see their breath, feel the frost, and the crunch of snow; they can listen to the quiet and see ice sparkling on branches like diamonds, and all of it – is an expression of God’s invisible qualities to them. They know it, but they suppress it.
Well, this season, please help your unsaved neighbors and friends to recognize this truth, the stunning fact that God himself came to rescue them. Do not let them suppress that fact.
SHAUNA: And friend, to help you get in the Christmas spirit and gather ideas for sharing all the beauty of this special time of year with your neighbors and friends and those who really do wonder about all this enchantment, go to joniradio.org. There you’ll find all sorts of inspiration for explaining the truth that simply cannot and must not be suppressed.
© Joni and Friends