Will Vaus

Do you know who gave the best Christmas gift of all time?  I believe God did, when he gave the gift of his one and only Son. Personally, I think John 3:16 gives us God’s perspective on Christmas…   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.   During the days of World War I, there was a Scotsman who took his son for a walk at twilight. As they were walking along through their neighborhood the son noticed the figure of a star placed in the windows of the homes of several families. The son said, “Da, why are there stars in some of the windows?”   His father replied, “That comes from this terrible war, laddie. It shows that these people have given a son.” Just then, the boy looked up in the sky and saw the evening star. He reflected for a moment and then said, “Da, God must have given a son too.”   Of course, God did not simply give  a  son, as many families ...

A woman who worked in a children’s day care facility was reading the story of Jesus’ birth to her children one morning. As usual, she stopped to see if the children understood…   “What do we call the three wise men?” the teacher asked.   “The three maggots,” replied a bright 5-year-old.   “What gift did the Magi bring baby Jesus?” she asked, gently correcting.   “Gold, Frankensteins and Smurfs!” the same 5-year-old replied. [1]   Often, we get the story of Christmas confused. Oh, we know that the three wise men were not maggots. We know that they didn’t bring gifts of Frankensteins and Smurfs. We get the words right, but often we lose the meaning of Christmas.   The wise men understood that Christmas is about worship. Let us hear their story again from Matthew 2:1-12. Listen for God’s word to you… After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea,   during the time of King Herod,   Magi [ a ]   from the east came to Jerusalem   2  and aske...

This is not the first year that many Christmas celebrations have been cancelled or altered. On December 21, 2015, the following headline appeared in the International Business Times: “Bethlehem Christmas 2015 Cancelled”. To be fully accurate, religious celebrations of Jesus’ birth went forward that year in Bethlehem, but many of the secular celebrations of Christmas that usually surround it were toned down due to instability in the area. Looking back a decade, there was even one year when Christian Arabs canceled community celebrations of Christmas in support of the Palestinian uprising. However, the Jewish government would have no part of that, so the Israeli military sponsored its own holiday celebrations in the area.   It is also interesting to note who celebrated the first Christmas and who didn’t. The first Christmas was not celebrated by the emperor Caesar Augustus, nor Quirinius, the governor of Syria, nor was it celebrated by the lowly innkeeper. But Christmas was celebrate...