Christmas Memories
What a Christmas Gift
By A. G. Ward
“Unto us a child is born.”
God Almighty appearing among men as a little child —
how gentle and yet how sublimely grand was His coming! He let in the light as
our eyes were able to bear it. What a priceless Christmas Gift to the whole
human race — to the working men toiling in the fields, to the shepherds
keeping watch over their flocks. The Lord of Christmastide places a halo over
common toil and suggests that none is a common laborer who works for Him. How
truly blessed to think that “the very birth-hour of Christianity irradiated the
humble doings of humble people.”
What a revelation to Simeon, who worshipped and waited in
the temple. For many a long day his heart had craved peace and satisfaction;
perhaps like others he had tried nature and art and music, but still he waited;
yet, thank God, not in vain. The God child was the answer to his heart
longings, and thus “the Lord was not only to dignify the body but also to
gratify the soul.”
The Wise Men were not overlooked. The Christ child offered
mental satisfaction to those who had been devoting their time to the study of
the vast and intricate problems of the mind. He is the key to all true wisdom.
“To seek mental satisfaction and leave out Jesus is like trying to make a
garden and leave out the sun.”
“Unto us a son is given.”
Here we have the superlative Gift. What an infinite
expression of God’s good will toward all our race. Here we have divine love
overflowing the eternal boundaries and pouring itself in lavish abundance upon
the fallen sons of Adam. God’s unique Son was given in order that we all may be
born into sonship. No further need to grovel about as slaves of sin and Satan;
no need to continue feeling the pinch of dire moral poverty; we may experience
the glorious freedom of the sons of God for, “God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
What a Christmas Gift! All other gifts seem so trifling, so
incomparably small, of so little worth. In the midst of the awful darkness of
this present hour, let us look away from the scene of hatred and carnage to
yonder sky which does not express a frown but which bends over us in infinite
love and compassion and bids us behold anew the Son who long ago was given as
God’s expression of good will to the warring nations of the world.
You ask, “Are you sure that if I look to yonder sky I shall
behold the Son who was given?” Stephen did. “Behold, I see,” said he, “the Son
of man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). Yes, He is there for us!
Let fears be gone, let anxious care flee away. No matter what the immediate or
distant future may hold for us, all will be well. There is a Man in the glory
who once lived on this earth. He understands all our weaknesses, enters deeply
into our every struggle, and is disposed to help us in each time of need.
From the Pentecostal Evangel, Dec. 23, 1956.
