Sunday, Day 15, The Third Sunday in Advent: God Came To Show Us His Love

The Gift God Gave For His Son’s Birthday?

One of the things that happens at Christmas time is people give gifts and also get gifts from others.  

You might have asked for something from your parents. 

I remember always wanting toys, and games.  

Maybe you want something like that, or books, movies, video games.  

We love presents.  

As we get older we love giving gifts also.  

Did you know that God also gives gifts?  God’s word says it this way: 

Ephesians 2:7-8
⁷  Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus.
⁸  Saving us is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish!

God has given us the gift of his Salvation.  Do you know what Salvation means?  

It means:

• God loves us very much, and he wants us to know He cares about us. 
• The problem is this thing called Sin.  Sin is what causes us to be selfish, or hurt others, or disobey, or just do bad things. 
• God said, “I can solve the problem of Sin…I’ll send my Son into the world and he will die on the cross and solve the problem of Sin in everyone.” 
• Jesus came into the world as a baby, but he grew up and died on a cross for our Sins. 
• We don’t have to die on a cross because He died for us and that’s all God needs.
• When we ask God to save us from our Sins, we are asking Jesus to take away our Sin.

You know what we get when we ask Jesus to take away our Sin?  We get the gift of his Salvation. 

This is the gift that Jesus gave to us.  

The Bible, God’s Word, says it like this:

John 3:16
¹⁶  "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.

Here’s what another place in God’s word says we should say:  

2 Corinthians 9:15
¹⁵  Thank God for this gift, his gift. No language can praise it enough!

How can you thank God today for sending Jesus to us?  

We can pray and we can praise Him – which means to worship Him for all of His love to us.  

Here’s a video that sings a song of God’s love.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ch239kCT3Q

And here’s a reminder that Jesus is God’s gift to us you can color.

For Parents and Other Not Kids:

I remember as a child growing up in a small town in Wisconsin.  The highlight of each autumn was the arrival of the J.C. Penney's Christmas catalog.   The Penney's catalog  provided hours and hours of dreaming, wishing, pointing things out to parents, arguing with my brother of why this gun and holster was better than the one on the other side of the page!

In the Christmas movie, "A Christmas Story", Ralphie dreams of a Red Ryder BB gun. Ralphie's problem was every boys problem - how to convince your parents that the dream gift will be good...i.e., "you'll shoot your eyes out" - which I actually remember hearing from my Mom.  

I know my sisters looked through the catalogs too; but it was the hours of work that my brother and I poured over each page in order to prioritize a list of "I want this..."  What appeared as a need on page 45 got bumped to last place by page 355.  

It was pure fun and I have fond memories of that wish list "this is what I want for Christmas".

Gifts, Christmas, Presents…all speak of this season.  Tis the season for gift giving.  

Have we realized that the first Christmas gift really came from God?

Romans 6:23
²³  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Truly, this is a gift that never stops giving.  In many ways, it also seems so simple.  What God asks of us is simply to receive the gift.

No need to work for it; or any need to perform.  

It is a gift…pure and simple.

Gifts don’t have to be profound.  My grandchildren send us their works of art which end up on our refrigerator!  I love those gifts.  These gifts won't replace a Picasso or a Renoir, but they will stay proudly displayed because they came from little hearts as gifts of love.

Advent reminds us that it is in the little things that gifts are given. 

God delights in simple gifts that come from joy, love, and the heart.  That is why he chose to send His Son into the world as a baby - born in a stable - of two poor young Jewish people - in a small village on the outskirts of the metropolis - with Shepherds as the first visitors.  

John 3:16
¹⁶  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

We get the point.  It's not the extravagance of the gift, it's where the gift came from in the heart of the person who gives. 

This is the Advent message - God gives from the heart and the gift keeps on giving. 

Romans 3:21-24
²¹  But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
²²  the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
²³  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
²⁴  and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

And also

Ephesians 2:5-8,  
“…even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
⁶  and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷  so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
⁸  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 

Think about it - God gave US salvation as a gift, and gave US to His Son as a gift.  

May all of our gifts be so generous and from the heart.

By the way, if you didn’t hit on the link in the kid’s part on the video…go ahead, be a kid and soak it up!

Peace