I love Christmas!  I love everything about it!  I love the crowds, because I get a kick out of watching and interacting with people.  I love the lights, decorations and music, because it is just out there!  I love the whole idea, because the original idea is really a cool thing!  I mean think about it:  Our Creator loves us and desires to have a personal relationship with us.  A relationship that will allow us to walk, talk and live life together – how amazing is that?

One of the great tragedies of this time of year, is that we often get so busy and preoccupied with all that we have to get done and the little amount of time that we have to do it, that we miss the point.  This is why it is important to stop, slow down and re-adjust our focus every now and then.  Change our focus get it right and we change our life and get it right!

Our focus should always be Jesus!  He is the great gift of God.  He is Divinity wrapped in humanity, God in the flesh – dwelling among us!  If Jesus is who the Bible says He is and if Jesus is who we say we believe He is, then this should change our lives!  May we never cease to be amazed at Jesus, who is and what he has done and may we never stop letting this reality challenge and change our lives!

Think about it!  God became flesh!  Jesus is God!  When God became flesh, He did not take off divinity, instead He put on humanity and He died and came back to life!  In Jesus we have hope that never runs out!  He is the answer that a lost, dying and hurting world is searching for!

Life is meaningless without Jesus!  If you actually take the time to stop and think about it, if and when you take Jesus out of the equation, then there is nothing of significance left!  Remove Jesus and you remove hope.

Hope is the belief or expectation of a positive outcome.  It is more than wishful thinking or positive optimism.  It is the thought and understanding that no matter how bad things might get, it’s all going to turn out okay!  We need hope today, more than at any other time in our lives.

When the Bible speaks of hope, it is talking about having a “trusting expectation”!  This is exactly what God wants us to have.  We can trust in Him and we can expect Him to work in and through our lives in amazing ways!

I encourage you to receive Jesus, unwrap your gift of hope and use it for God’s glory and everyone’s blessing!