Question a group of people about faith and someone will answer, "Well, all religions are pretty much the same. Besides, we'll all end up in the same place, no matter how we get there."
Ask what they know of Christmas and one might say, "Aw, it's something about a baby in a manger, a nice story this time of year."
Well, no. It's much more.
What about it? Are all religions "pretty much the same?"
Not according to a traveler to a Middle Eastern country that's over 90 percent Muslim. The American looked up his old friends, whom he believed to be Muslim. No, they told him, they've been Christ-followers ever since they heard the Gospel proclaimed.
Their American friend asked what differences they were aware of in the two religions. Without hesitation one answered, "Every Muslim is taught that God is impossibly far from human beings, that we must try our hardest to reach toward Him through being faithful in our spiritual practices.
"Then one day I heard the Good News of Jesus. God came to earth in the form of a baby, to live among human beings. People like us!
"When I read more of the Bible I was amazed. In Exodus it tells how God dwelled with His people, the Israelites, there in the wilderness. He went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. God even spoke to Moses directly!"
The man's wife said, "And then we read it was God's plan to send His Son to earth to pay the price of all our sins. To set us right with holy God. Now we are free! Free from fear, free from condemnation. I feel lighter, as if someone unlocked my heavy chains.
"Jesus did it all! I will never be the same."
That's what sets Christianity apart
Christmas is nothing less than a miracle of God
The Christmas story began long before the angel appeared to Mary, the virgin, and told her she would bear the Son of God, that very first Christmas. And it goes on long after the Christmas tree comes down.
The Christian faith is not about a far-off, distant god or magnificent monuments where followers must go and worship to prove their faithfulness.
It's about our Lord being up close and personal for every one of us. Our Savior and best Friend. Our Comforter. Our strength. Our Deliverer. Our Joy. Our Peace.
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
That's why God came to earth, born as a human baby to a human mother, there in Bethlehem.
For you.
For me.
For all the world.
That's the real Christmas story.
May it be your story, too. I pray your heartwill be filled with the joy of Jesus this Christmas and all through the New Year!
Lovingly,
Lenore
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