“..You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
“…And they will call him Immanuel — which means ‘God with us.’”

Read: Matthew 1:18-25

The fact that we need God with us because of our sin is a sobering fact. We would like to be so attractive and righteous in ourselves that God simply wants to be with us because we are so good. But Christ did not come into his creation as a human being to congratulate us but to redeem us. Since mankind sold out to sin we needed to be bought back. The price was unbelievably high. Like a fire in an art gallery which destroys priceless, original masterpieces, sin destroyed the holiness and righteousness of God’s creation.

God did not wave a wand and start over. Even fallen, sinful men and women are made in His image and worth redeeming. God determined to restore the masterpiece to the specifications of His holiness and righteousness through the painstaking work of Jesus Christ. Becoming a new creation in Christ is possible because God did not give up on us but came to us to save us.

Prayer: We confess Lord, that we are not in a mood to think about sin at Christmas, especially our own sin. Your coming to earth and being with us seems so positive and inspiring and sin is so negative and discouraging. Help us Lord to face the sobering truth of why You came and then let us rejoice in Your forgiveness and acceptance. Give us courage to share the truth about Christmas with our friends. Amen.