The Story of a Gift

The first Christmas was not a gift to a child; it was the gift of a Child. The story of Jesus Christ coming into this world is not so much the story of a birth as much as it’s the story of a gift. For us, it was the entrance of Jesus to Planet Earth. But for God the Father, it was the departure of a Son from Heaven.

“For unto us a Child is born,” the Scriptures say. “Unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6 NKJV).

We sometimes think that when Jesus was born into the human race in Bethlehem, He essentially made His entrance into the universe. But that isn’t true at all.

Jesus is God. Therefore, He is eternal. He has always existed. The Bible says, “But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children” (Galatians 4:4–5 NLT).

His birth was His entrance into the world as the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world.

The prophet Micah said, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2 NKJV).

The words from everlasting could be translated “from the vanishing point.” Micah was revealing by the Holy Spirit that the Messiah, God in human form, would be born in a manger.

This is the great miracle of Christmas: God became a man.