You Can't Have One Without The Other

Luke 2:11
For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord....

The days are counting down until Christmas is here.....
People are rushing about looking for that last minute gift for that special someone.
The radio plays old familiar songs and new renditions that are foreign to me...
Churches every where are preparing their programs and music to celebrate the time and season....
You turn on the TV and there is "Miracle on 34th Street"...or "It's A Wonderful Life."
It is Christmas....One day out of 365....
We can set aside the day...
But we can't set aside the event that Christmas surrounds...
It is merely one in a string of events.

You see, at Christmas we celebrate the birth of Christ.
We celebrate a manger that held the incarnate God who had stepped out of heaven to take on the flesh of humanity...
A manger, built for holding food..now held the bread of life.
But you really can't have the manger without a cross.
These are probably the two most opposite kinds of contraptions ever conceived.
One held the baby Jesus...a celebration of life...
The other, the cross, held the broken, bruised and battered Jesus....it too a celebration of life.
You can't separate the two...
You can't have one without the other....

The story doesn't end there...
You can't have the manger...
or the cross......
without the tomb.
The tomb stands as the exclamation point to this entire plan.
Jesus was born...
to die....
To live again....so that I would not have to suffer the second death of eternal separation from God.
He was born to die....
And He died to live again....
The power of sin, death and hell was broken...
That breaking began in a manger....
It was magnified in a river called Jordan at His baptism...
God thundered in the heavens as the Holy Spirit was released..."This is my boy!!!"
Satan was given notice that the one he'd been looking for since Genesis 3:15 was now on the scene.
To me...that is good news of the gospel.
I now have been given the gift of eternal life, to spend it with Jesus.
I don't fully understand how it will work....but that's all right.
I have this thing called faith that Jesus is who He claims to be...
and can do what He claims He can do....

So as you look at your Christmas tree this year....
Don't forget a manger....
When you think of the manger.....remember that the shadow of the cross falls over it..
If the cross comes to your mind, let joy fill you as the you realize that the tomb is waiting....
When your thoughts enter that tomb.....shout for joy! He is risen.....

Merry Christmas from the "B's" of Attalla....
God on you...
mb