Christmas Day rapidly approaches.

What is Christmas really about?

Today, I gathered with a few co-workers who took a few minutes from their day to sing Christmas carols, accompanied by a Cajón drum and a guitar.  I had only stopped by to see what was going on and decided to stay as I found that drawing together, even for a few moments, is a testament to the Lord. He takes us from our lonely lives on a broad path to hell and gives us brothers and sisters in Him that we can fellowship with on the narrow way to heaven.  In this moment when my heart was tender, I even let myself enjoy the words of Silent Night.  I never appreciated this hymn until I sang it this morning.

“Silent Night, Holy Night.  Son of God, Love’s Pure Light.  Radiant beams from Thy Holy Face with the dawn of Redeeming Grace.  Jesus, Lord at thy birth.  Jesus, Lord at thy birth.”

And there it is, my friends.  I get chills just thinking about it.  After a nighttime of humanity lost in sin, unable to pay the debt of death that separation from God requires, Light broke through.  The Giver of grace had arrived…as a baby.  But the story of Christmas does not stop by that manger, it is merely the first step on a path that the God-Man takes to Calvary.  He was an infant in Mary’s arms at His birth, but throughout His life He was always doing His Father’s Work.

In the City of David, loving parents wrapped the newborn child in swaddling clothes and placed in a soft bed of straw.  On Golgotha, mocking soldiers tore the Man’s cloak off Him and He hung naked on a rough tree.  Love’s Pure Light became Death’s Sin and Shame.  At His birth, He was welcomed into the loving arms of His mother.  At His death, He was rejected even of His Heavenly Father.  Angels praised God to the shepherds when He was born.  He was ridiculed by a dying thief while He died.

The story doesn’t and mustn’t end there.  God the Father accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins, and after three days lying dead in the tomb, Jesus Christ arose!

Redeeming grace dawned with the Baby born in Bethlehem, but it blinds in the Glory of the Risen Son.

Singing the songs with my co-workers today, I looked at their faces; I watched them sing, and was reminded what Christmas truly is about.   I don’t know their hearts, their struggles.  However, that Baby in a manger who became the Man on the cross died so that we might have eternal life in heaven.  That’s why we sing.  Even on a gloomy day with unspoken burdens that cloud our hearts, we sing to the Lord that saved us.

Why is there joy to this miserable, dying, diseased, and broken world?

The Lord. Has. Come.