The Glory Of ChristmasSample

 Home for Christmas 

As the old song made popular by Bing Crosby says, everyone dreams about being home for Christmas, with snow and presents and mistletoe. It’s a beautiful idea. And in American culture, we associate home and family at no time of the year more than at Christmas. 

Everyone wants to be around that Christmas tree or seated at the Christmas dinner table, enjoying the family circle in warmth and safety. But when you think about the first Christmas, none of the heroes were home for the occasion. Mary and Joseph had left home—they couldn’t even find a guestroom. The shepherds had left their fields and flocks. The wise men had traveled far, far from home on the road to see the Christ child sometime after Christmas. Jesus, of course, went the farthest from home—leaving the glory of heaven and the fellowship of the Father and the Holy Spirit to take on the humility of human birth. As a matter of fact, only the villains of the Christmas story—Herod and the infamous imaginary innkeeper (whom Scripture never mentions)—were at home. Furthermore, everyone in Bethlehem who failed to take Mary and Jesus into their houses was at home. In a great irony, the true meaning of Christmas has nothing to do with being at home. It has everything to do with leaving home on a noble and holy mission to save those who have become lost and helpless without God, who face the danger of losing their heavenly home for eternity.

I’m so glad Jesus left home to save us and that the heroes of Christmas left home to be with him and attend his humble birth. I’m thankful for members of the military who spend Christmas away from home in defense of our nation and its values. I’m also thankful for the missionaries who will spend Christmas away from home this year in gospel service around the word. Like the heroes of Christmas, they have left home to attend the new birth of others. 

O God, we pray that you will visit everyone who spends this Christmas away from home in service to others, and that the true Spirit of Christmas—God’s Holy Spirit—will anoint their efforts and multiply the gifts of God in their lives, so that they may present to God the souls of many when we all finally do get home—once and for all. Amen.

For more devotionals like this, check out Joseph Castleberry's book 40 Days of Christmas available wherever books are sold.