It is Advent season! This is a time that Christians all over the world are celebrating the incarnation of our Lord and Savior; Jesus Christ. Advent is a preparation period of 4 weeks where Christians do various things to celebrate the holiday. AM is sharing the news of Jesus Christ through social media and also preparing to hold various international online retreats. Let’s gather our hearts to meditate on the birth of Jesus together.

The reason why this is important is that the world has made the holiday to be a day of giving and receiving gifts, although that is not bad, however, that is not the sole purpose of the Christmas holiday. The month of December should be a time to reflect on the birth of Jesus. If it were not for his coming, we could not be set free from sin and experience true life.

The New Testament records that the Gentiles Magi were the only ones joyful about the birth of Jesus.

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem” (Matthew 2:1).

“When they saw the star, they were overjoyed” (Matthew 2:10).

We can imagine how sad this must have been for God to see that the Jews; who were the chosen people, did not recognize the arrival of Jesus. Instead, it was Magi men from the East.

“When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.” (Matthew 2:4)

These were the words of King Herod, who was the ruler of Jerusalem at the time. From this, we can see that none of the Jews were prepared for the coming of Christ. They were supposed to be the ones that knew the exact time and place that Jesus would be born, but they didn’t. The ones who did and the ones who prepared well were the Gentile men.

“On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.” (Matthew 2:11)

This Christmas, let us be the ones that are joyful for the coming of Christ. Through Him, we gain salvation. If it were not for His sacrifice, we could not experience true joy. Prepare your hearts well and remember to always give thanks to God for giving us the best gift ever!