Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Most Astounding Thing About Christmas

What’s the most astounding thing about Christmas to you?

The amount of electricity used in powering all the Christmas lights on people’s homes?

The credit card bill you’re racking up to buy gifts for family, friends, and coworkers?

The way your Uncle Louie consistently manages to buy you the most inappropriate gift imaginable, every single year?

The ugly Christmas sweater said uncle wears to every holiday event, even formal ones?

No, the most astounding thing about Christmas is that the Creator of the Universe, Almighty God, came down to earth and was born as a baby.

God Himself, the perfect and holy One, entered our messy, sinful world in the form of Jesus and dwelt with us for 33 years. Then He died on a Cross for our sins. All this was done out of immense love for us.

The theological term for God coming to us in this fashion is the Incarnation, which literally means “God made flesh.”

The Incarnation features heavily in my favourite Christmas carol, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”

Its writer, Charles Wesley, seems to have been so astounded by the fact of the Incarnation that he sprinkled this hymn with at least 10 references to it. See if you can spot them:

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Are You on Santa’s Naughty or Nice List?

Are you on Santa’s “Naughty” list or his “Nice” list?

Sometimes it’s hard to know, isn’t it?

You shovelled the snow off your elderly neighbour’s walkway, so that counts as nice.

But on the other hand, you greedily ate half a pan of freshly baked brownies before sharing them with your family. Not so nice.

You made up for that by running errands for a sick friend, and volunteering to work late at the office to help finish a project. Definitely heading well into “nice” territory!

But then you lost your temper at your spouse, fibbed to get out of visiting your mother-in-law, and illegally parked your car in a disabled space while you dashed into the store to buy milk. Uh-oh! Looks like you’re squarely back on the naughty list.

With Santa, it’s hard to know where you stand on the naughty/nice spectrum.

That’s why it’s good to know that, if you’re a believer in Jesus, there’s only one list:

Forgiven.

If you’re trusting in Jesus’ atoning work on the Cross, your name is added to the “Forgiven” list.

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