Theme:   All I Want for Christmas is to Make Things OK

This eDevotional was written by a volunteer from Timberlake Church. 

Read: Hebrews 11:1-3; Revelations 19:11-16

Think:  Thinking about Christmas, I decided to see what Wikipedia had as the description for this holiday. Here’s what I found:  “An annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ celebrated generally on December 25 as a religious and cultural holiday by billions of people around the world.” So I am good with celebrating Christmas and the account of Jesus… But it makes me wonder, just where did this dude Santa come from and how’d he get thrown into the mix?

Let me start by saying the story of Santa is fun and it can be a positive tradition if you want to incorporate it into your family celebrations… But let’s make sure the tale of Santa doesn’t ever let us reduce the account of the Savior coming to the world to the same level. It’s one thing to share a story about a man who flies around in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, who climbs down chimneys and lives at the North Pole… But it’s an entirely other thing to have faith and believe in Jesus entering this world as a human being so that we would have forgiveness for sin, a life abundant, eternity with the Father.  

We live in a world where we gather a lot of what we believe based on what we see. That is one of the reasons why I love Christianity, it doesn’t find its basis on science or the ‘tangible’ things we see, but it finds its foundation on faith --- Faith in the fact that Jesus is who he said he was and someday he’ll come again. As Christians, we are asked to have faith, just like it talks about in Hebrews 11: 1-3:  “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see...by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”

It doesn’t hurt to include Santa, but remember the ‘reason for the season’ is that Jesus Christ came to this earth as a little baby, later died for our sins on the cross, and one day he’ll come back, not on a sleigh but on a white horse as revealed in Revelations 19:11.

Do: This Christmas, share your memories about believing in Santa but also share your story about your faith in Jesus Christ.

Pray: Dear Lord, help me to have the opportunity to share about you with others this Christmas season. Grow my faith in You and my belief in what is your story! In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.