Merry Christmas!

It’s Christmas day! To all who come across this post today, on behalf of the entire GENESIS community, I wish you a Merry Christmas!

It’s a good chance that at some point you will open gifts today. Some you’ll absolutely love and others will leave you wondering ‘Does this person even know who I am? What were they thinking getting me this?’

Certainly there will be food - probably lots and lots of food. You’ll tell yourself that it’s okay to enjoy all the Christmas delights because the New Year is right around the corner and you promise to begin eating healthier then.

There will be traveling... oh the traveling! Some of you woke up this morning desperate for some caffeine to help you pack up the car and head to a family member’s home where you’ll spend part of the day. And when your morning is over, you’ll look for some more caffeine as you pack up the car once again to head to the next family destination.

Wherever you are this Christmas, spending time with family and friends or on your own, my heart for you is simply this – DON’T MISS IT!

It’s always amazing to me how much time, planning, effort and spending goes into one day only to get to the end of it having missed the point of the day.

I love Christmas for many reasons – family, friends, food and of course the gifts, but that’s not what I love most about Christmas. What I don’t want to miss in the midst of the celebration is the amazing reality of why we're actually celebrating this day.

GOD CAME NEAR SO THAT WE COULD KNOW HIM.

It really is that simple. But this simple truth is also transformational. Christmas is the reminder that I don’t have to live my life apart from knowing my Creator, and I don’t have to live my life trying to search for my Creator. He came to us. God was not content to have you and me only know something about Him. No, He wanted us to know Him fully – His heart, His character, His power, His love, His beauty.

At Christmas, we remember and celebrate that God came near so that we could know Him.

Wherever you spend this Christmas day, please do not miss it. Take some time by yourself or with those around you to enter into the Christmas story. Don’t let the busyness of the day hinder you from experiencing afresh that God came near in Jesus Christ so that we might enjoy every day in friendship with our Creator.

Merry Christmas!