Object Lesson: Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

SCRIPTURES: Luke 2:10-11

OBJECTS: Wrapped present, Christmas ornament, Christmas music, Christmas cookie (enough to share if you wish), a baby Jesus from a nativity set, and a Bible.

MAIN POINT: The best part of Christmas is Christ coming to save the world. 

(Start playing Christmas music as you enter) Merry Christmas everyone!  Don’t you love Christmas?  Everyone loves Christmas.  It’s the most wonderful time of the year.  Everyone seems to get along better, everyone walks around humming Christmas carols.  (display the ornament) Some people’s favorite part of the season is the decorations.  Who doesn’t like hanging ornaments on the tree, stringing lights on the gutters, and putting the wreath on the door.  Some people just drive around the neighborhoods for the sole reason of looking at the lights and decorations people put up.  (display the cookie and distribute to kids if you wish) Then there’s the food.  Christmas eating is some of the best all year.  Deserts rule the season with candy canes, cookies, fruitcakes, and pies.  How many of you have a favorite Christmas treat?  But of course, everyone knows the real favorite part of Christmas.  You’ve probably already told your wish list to your grandparents.  (display the present) It’s the presents!  Waking up Christmas morning to see all those packages under the tree is one of life’s greatest joys.  All the pretty wrapping and bows enticing you to tear them apart and litter the living room rug.  Everyone loves opening that new game, outfit, or toy and tearing apart the package to use it the first time.  Then you get to see your family’s face light up as they open the presents you got them.  What fun.

All these things are the favorite parts of Christmas that make it such a wonderful time of year.  These are the things that take up most of our time, our attention, and even our love.  You spend a month Decorating, shopping, baking, and singing.  There’s nothing wrong at all with these joy-filled traditions.  But, there is one more part to Christmas that seems to take a back seat to all the fun traditions.  There’s one more part that we kind of try to remember or fit in somewhere between the lights and wrapping, but it never gets our full attention.  (display baby Jesus). 

I think you know what this is.  It’s a baby Jesus from a nativity set.  Presents, decorations, music, and food are wonderful.  But Jesus should be the first thing we celebrate, not the last.  Jesus should be the most important thing we remember, not the presents.  Jesus is the best, most wonderful, most joyful news this world has ever gotten.  God, sent to earth to save the world.  (Read Luke 2:10-11)  Did you hear that?  For ALL PEOPLE.  The people of the world were dying in their own sins and God sent us a rescuer, a hero, to die in our place.  No part of Christmas traditions can ever be better than this news.

We honestly don’t know when Jesus was born.  It probably wasn’t in December.  But this is the day we’ve chosen to celebrate the birth of our Lord.  This is the day we set aside to remember his miracle.  Let Jesus be the focus of your decorations.  Celebrate Jesus in your meals and treats.  Give and receive gifts with the love of Jesus.  Sing songs that glorify Jesus.  And most of all, like the angels, spread the good news that Jesus came for all people as the savior to rescue us from our sins.  That’s the best part of Christmas.