Home For Christmas
Home for Christmas
On December 17, 1903 an event happened at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina that would change the course of history. After many attempts, the Wright brothers (Orville and Wilbur) were successful in getting their “flying machine” off the ground and into the air. Thrilled over their accomplishment, the brothers telegraphed this message to their sister Katherine, “We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas.”
Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper, hoping to set up an interview for her brothers. She showed that newspaper man the message. He glanced at it and said, “How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas.”
Somehow, that editor missed the point that this was man’s first flight.
We live in a world that sees Christmas as a time to shop, Santa Claus, evergreen trees, and “Holiday Greetings” that include every philosophy, viewpoint, belief, and perspective. Yet, two thousand years ago, a Savior was born. Without Christ, we miss the point of Christmas.
What is the importance (the point) of Christmas?
Scripture says that Christmas is the miracle of a virgin giving birth to a child (Isaiah 7:14). It is a people who walk in darkness seeing a great light (Isaiah 9:2). It is God becoming a man (just like us) and naming Himself, “Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6-7). It is Immanuel humbling Himself, taking on human flesh, and, as God with us, God for us, and God in us, bearing a cross of wood that He made Himself and dying upon it (Philippians 2:5-8).
The greatest tree of Christmas is not in a living room. It is that cross at Calvary. The greatest message of Christmas is not a jolly old man in a red suit taking off from the North Pole with a sled full of toys. It is what the shepherds heard when they left their sheep in that first Christmas rush, hurried to the place of Jesus’s birth, and heard these words from angels, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, [Who] is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).
What is the message of Christmas? Among other messages, it is heaven’s message on how sinners can come home.
I guess that editor in Dayton, Ohio, in 1903, missed one message but got another message right: we can come home at Christmas. The way to come home, through Christmas, is to follow the road map which was left by Jesus Christ. Realize we are sinners (Romans 3:10, 23). Recognize that sinners need a Savior (Romans 5:6-8). Repent and receive that Savior (Jesus Christ) into your life for forgiveness of sins (John 1:12; Romans 10:9-10). When you do, God will give you a ‘forever relationship’ with Him that guarantees all believers that we will never, ever miss the point of another Christmas – that Christ was born to die to provide your way home to Him.