We appreciate the Synoptic Gospels account of Christs birth and the events surrounding it. Certainly during this time of year, we pause for a few days to commemorate our Lords entering into our world.

We have so many reasons to rejoice and none of them relates to the commercialization of the season. We rejoice because; in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. John 1:1. We rejoice because in him was life, and that life was the light of men. John 1:14. We rejoice because the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14.

So we do not celebrate the beginning of Jesus as He was always in existence. But we celebrate His coming in the flesh; His becoming one of us and His living among us.

He came in weakness; born in lowly conditions, born of common parentage, born poor and in diver circumstances. The Son of God came into this gloomy sin infested world to reconcile the world to God. He was charged with the task of satisfying Gods justice for the world. This is the joy of Christ-mas, the meaning of Christmas.

Think about the enormity of that for a moment. The Logos, the eternal Word of God was made flesh. He who was in the beginning and who made everything that was made should be made flesh and live among us lowly undeserving creatures. He took upon Himself the nature of man and placed Himself into our human condition. He came and lived among mean, corrupted, rebellious man.

The joy of Christ-mas is not in the shopping and the merrymaking. It is in the knowledge that Jesus Christ came in the flesh and dwelt among us.