Unwrapping Christmas
By: Thomas E. Mcdaniels
Tags: Faith and Life, Christmas, Christianity, Church, Spirituality

There is more to Christmas than giving gifts and wrapping paper.

If we unwrap Christmas, we find a deeper meaning to life.

So, let’s unwrap Christmas.

We unwrap gifts because Americans love to package the content.

We spend 2.6 million dollars every year on wrapping paper.

50% of all paper used in the US is for gift packaging

71% of us wrap our own gifts

53% will re-use wrapping paper

19% of us use gift bags

31% have professionals wrap their gifts

Can you see that we are equally consumed with the package as we are the content? Typical for Americans — we care more about how we look than how we are doing. Everything that shines is not gold.

We are in a desperate place when our package is in better shape than our contents

That is why we must unwrap Christmas. When we unwrap Christmas, we find Jesus. Jesus is the reason for the Christmas season and the greatest gift of all gifts.

Jesus, as a King, was hidden in where He was born.

Jesus as a package

Jesus was not packaged in a palace or sitting on a throne. Jesus was and is the King of Kings. Jesus was packaged in the womb of a virgin and born in a barn.

Jesus was wrapped in everything but Kingship.

For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because God’s foolishness is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (I Corinthians 1:22–25, NKJV)

Jesus was packaged in foolishness to the Greeks and as a stumbling-block for the Jews. The mystery of how God wrapped Jesus forces humanity to look more profound than the package.

Jesus was wrapped in peasantry but clothed in dignity

Jesus was wrapped in humanity, but His substance was deity.

Jesus was wrapped as a servant but cloaked as a King.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5–11, NKJV)

Jesus was a King, packaged as a servant-not exactly Kingly material.

God wrapped in a womb to identify with us.

God’s intention for Jesus was for Him to know our journey and our struggle.

God’s intention for Jesus was to reveal the Father and to save us from our sins.

God wrapped Jesus in human weakness to shows us infinite strength.

God wrapped Jesus the shame of the cross to take out shame away.

God wrapped Jesus in the emptiness of the cross to release the fullness of His Spirit to us.

Unwrapping ourselves

We must look at our own package. What has us all wrapped up? Maybe we are wrapped up in fear or anxiety. In our times, life seems chaotic and full of uncertainty.

Life is uncertain even when it feels certain

Many of us are wrapped up in the wrong things.

We have made the package more important than the contents. We wrap our lives up in Facebook likes and shares. Maybe you are all wrapped up in keeping up with the Jones’.

When we unwrap our contents, what’s inside?

Are you empty inside?

God has a gift for you. Jesus is the gift of all gifts.

The Christmas season’s commercialism causes us to forget that the baby in the manger was a gift. God did not send His Son to give us a reason to celebrate each December. He sent His Son to save us.

He came to give us eternal life. He came to save us from our sins. (Matthew 1:21). Yes, salvation is the true gift of Christmas.

Max Lucado asks, “If we could save ourselves, why would we need a Savior?” He notes that “Jesus didn’t enter the world to help us save ourselves. He entered the world to save us from ourselves. You might save yourself from a broken heart or going broke or running out of gas. But you’re not good enough to save yourself from sin; you aren’t strong enough to save yourself from death.”

Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”

We must unwrap the gift of salvation. It is the most important gift you will unwrap this year.

Here is how you unwrap it — “that if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9:10, NKJV)

It is simple. The gift is yours — Confess Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart.

Merry Christmas.

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