Christmas: The Birth of Hope

                During the month of December I am going to try to write my first series, and given the major holiday of the month is Christmas, you can guess what the topic of the series will be. This first part will focus on the meaning of Christmas. Now the typical answer that most people would give for Christmas is that it is either the celebration of the birth of Christ or the celebration of the giving of gifts to one another to show love to one another. While both are well and good, the former answer provides a much more lasting gift than the new sweater that grandma just knitted for you.
                Now then, why does the birth of Christ matter? Other than the fact that one of the most famous historical figures came into being. That’s the thing, as a follower of Christ, I believe that he is so much more than just a historical figure. The birth of Christ shows that God took off his divinity and took on the mortal flesh of man to fulfill the messianic prophecies described in the Old Testament. These prophecies describe a savior who will come to free us from sin and restore our connection with the Father. This act of God also brings up an important point to me about a common question, the problem of suffering. For those unfamiliar with the topic, the problem of suffering takes a look at the evil and pain in the world and posits that God is all powerful, and is either unwilling or unable to do anything about it. While I could pull multiple sources from the Bible to chip away at this problem, I believe that the coming of Christ is a massive hammer blow to the problem of suffering. For me to explain the massive importance to not only the individual reading this, but to the entire human race, that the God who made the universe that we inhabit would care enough about his creation that he would take on flesh and face death so that we could go on to be in eternal communion with him is so amazing that I would need eternity itself to explain it, and even then I doubt I could get everything in writing.

                Like I said, I intend to make this a series that I will try to complete within the month, but we will see where I am led. I hope that you will follow me as I present what I find interesting about Christmas. May God bless you and have a good rest of your day.

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