God’s calendar

During our church “candles and carols” celebration last night, the pastor said, “This is a holy night because God put this date on His calendar a very long time ago.”

We know that Jesus may not have been born on a December night. It really doesn’t matter what day it was. What matters is the wonderful plan and purpose of God in bringing His Son into the world. Peter wrote about it like this: “He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

I am in awe that the birth of the Christ child was in the mind of God before He made the world and all that is in it. He knew long before He made us that we would need Him. He planned the perfect solution that we might put our faith in Him and have eternal life.

Our sin and need for Him were not a surprise. In fact, Ephesians 1:4 says, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him.”

God not only planned Christ’s coming, but also planned the solution for sin—that I be His child, that I be holy and blameless before Him. As we give and receive gifts today, He reminds me that He gave this most incredible of all gifts.

To all who receive Him, to all who give back to Him their lives, may your Christmas be filled with awe over His great love and mercy. May you rejoice that long before He did anything else, Almighty God put Jesus birth—and our new birth—on His calendar.

Merry Christmas!