This morning my husband woke me up when I should have been walking out the door to go to work. I didn’t have the time to spend in the Word before leaving for the office. But thankfully I was able to praise the Lord all the way to work. Being the week before Christmas, traffic was lighter than normal. So when I arrived, I had time to read the two devotionals I read each morning. This morning’s devotional from The Christmas Code reminded me of what is truly important.

How can you make the most of Christmas? For some it is all about decorating the house or tree, getting that special gift, seeing relatives, or getting invited to that certain someone’s party. But making the most of Christmas is so much more than any of these things.

“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” (Luke 2:20) Join the shepherds this year in making these next few days a time of “glorifying and praising God,” a time of celebrating all that Christmas is and means.

The first four stanzas of “Joy to the World” say, “Joy to the world The Lord has come; Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room”. This morning I really thought about what it means to prepare Him room. There was no room for Him in Bethlehem. “And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7) The real Christmas was nothing like the Christmas we’ve come to know, with its traditions, memories, and legends. It was a desperate moment that occurred for a desperate reason.

“The Word became flesh” (John 1:14) so that the Word could become sin for us condemned sinners, and die for us that we might be made righteous in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). He was born outside a village and He died outside a city. “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him” (John 1:10).

In our culture at this time of year especially, people come together to donate toys and food for the less fortunate so that they, too, will be able to enjoy the Christmas season. What if in addition to that, we share the true meaning of Christmas, praise and glorify the Lord for all that He has done, and share with others why THE baby was born? We just may have an impact that will last much longer than one day. “Mild He lays His Glory by; Born that man no more may die; Born to raise the sons of earth; Born to give them second birth; Hark! the herald angels sing Glory to the new-born King”.