Why is Christmas Significant For Me? (3)
Valley Church
Today’s blog comes from Valley Church’s youth leader, Jo Nicol. Jo is also a member of the leadership team, whilst working as a district nurse for her day job. Read on to hear why Christmas is significant to Jo…
One word sums up why Christmas is significant to me… worship.
The definition of worship is to devote, to adore and to honour. So where does our worship (our devotion, our adoration, our honour) for God come from? Well I believe it comes from recognising who God is. In Matthew 2v1-12 the Magi worship Jesus because they recognised who He was…not just a human baby as He would have appeared, but the Saviour of mankind!! The Magi were wise men who knew the Saviour was coming and when they saw that Jesus, the Saviour they had been waiting for, was now on earth they responded by finding him, bowing down and worshipping Him (Matt 2v11).
So as we recognise who God is this Christmas season we respond by worshipping (honouring) Him with our lives. What does this look like?
‘Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. (1 John 4:7-9 NIV)’
I work as a District Nurse and last year I was working Christmas day. Although I was missing out on waking up with my husband to open presents, going to the service at church and having a delicious turkey dinner with all the trimmings, I loved being at work. For some of my patients Christmas was a time of celebrating and doing all those things I could have been doing at home. But for some, that day was a quiet and lonely one. For some of my patients Christmas wasn’t a happy time of year because of loss, grief, family disunity and hurt. For some of my patients I was the only person they would see on Christmas day and so I counted it a privilege to spend time with them. To sit and ask them how they were. To offer them the warmth of a smile. To show them God’s love through my words and my actions.
This Christmas season whose life could you touch with the love of God? What could you do to make Christmas significant for someone else?
– Jo