At Christmas, we can experience every kind of emotion there is: anger at a disgruntled family member, stress finishing up last-minute shopping, exhaustion after wrapping gifts on Christmas Eve…but when all is said and done, Christmas is about love. And don’t just take my word for it. The nineteenth-century poet Christina Rossetti famously captured the spirit of Christmas when she wrote:

        Love came down at Christmas,
        Love all lovely, love divine;
        Love was born at Christmas,
        Star and angels gave the sign.

And the beloved disciple John wrote in 1 John 4:9:

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.

Christmas is not only a demonstration of God’s love, but an expression of God’s character, for God is love (1 John 4:8). The ultimate expression of God’s love was sending Jesus into the world, which is what we celebrate at Christmas, Immanuel – God with us!

God’s ways are always motivated as an expression of his love and as we experience more of his love, we in turn learn how to love others. In fact, our love for others is evidence that God lives in us. When we allow God’s love to shine in our lives, people can see the unseen God at work and that brings him glory, honor and praise.

Christmas wasn’t just a cute little baby being born in a manger on a silent night in a little town of Bethlehem! Christmas reminds us of the Son of God, who for the love of you and me left his Father’s side to make a way for us to know and experience relationship with him. Christmas is a love story.

This Christmas, may you more fully experience God’s unconditional love, so that you may more fully love others as he has loved us!