The Greatest Story Ever Retold

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So read the cover of the Daily Mail Christmas TV guide in the UK. They’ve certainly got that right! The animation of this happens on Christmas Eve on BBC 1 at 4 15pm for all the family.

I read yesterday in the Bible that when the angel addressed the shepherds on that first Christmas night he said (found in the Living Bible) “Don’t be afraid!” to them. “I bring you the most joyful news ever announced, and it is for everyone!” (Luke 2). This was not for a select few but for every single one of us from the oldest to the youngest. The angel went on to say, “The Saviour — yes, the Messiah, the Lord — has been born tonight in Bethlehem!…” Wow – the promised Messiah, that every Jewish person was waiting for, actually came onto our planet for all people.

The Birth of JesusMay the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see the huge significance of this. He can literally transform our world from hate and oppression and war into loving and freedom and peace. If only we would simply come to Jesus at this time and tell him we want him to come into our lives so that this world can be transformed by his power one life at a time.

It’s not your glitter bowls/balls or winning a competition that is important. These things come and go and are finite but the one who came that first Christmas has a a love to give the human race that will satisfy each of us every day of our lives on earth and beyond. He can make us content with what we have and what we have to go through.

We can’t understand why we have to go through some stuff and pain and hurt and bereavements but we can trust one who is far greater and can hold us when the going gets tough. Life on planet Earth is not easy but then he knows about that, too. He had no permanent place to lay his head, his friends let him down and he was misunderstood at the place where he worked. He knows us each through and through as he made us and because of our uniqueness, he can help us overcome our weaknesses. When the pressures get too much, he is just a prayer away. He always helps us when we call to him with the simplest of prayers like ‘”Help!”

So, as we hear the Christmas story again this year, may we be real and say to God e.g. ‘I don’t get this story but I want to,’ or ‘Show me the way forward with my life, God.’ He reads our hearts but wants us to talk with him about our inner fears and feelings and desires. The decisions we make in this life have a huge repercussion when we get to meet our Creator and Saviour. Jesus Christ only can save us from our sins as we come to him in repentance and the youngest of our children can understand this wonder and truth. Then our hearts and lives can be right before God and the past slate cleansed – all because of Jesus who saves us from the penalty of our sin that we rightly deserve.This is one of the reasons that ‘Diamond Books’ exist to share with children the truths of the Bible and the greatness of the God who inspired men to write it.

May you each have a blessed Christmas realising afresh what it’s all about!