Christmastime has always provoked a desire to experience LOVE. Romance novels and Hallmark movies were the norm and certainly instrumental in setting a standard for me as a young girl. A woman recently confided that she loved the Hallmark Christmas movies because they made her feel good. Her candid admission lingered in my mind, and I began questioning my own need to feel good. The Lord impressed upon me the extreme hollowness, the convincing counterfeit, and the watered-down version of LOVE I frequently run after.

Christmas IS “ALL” about LOVE, but not so much about getting. Christmas is ALL about giving!

Christmas would not be Christmas without a God of love, giving! He gave a Baby, His Son; And in turn The Baby was born to give! But what the Baby gave was His life!

And this is where we find the accurate meaning of LOVE:

For God so loved the world, that He gave.

John 3:16, ESV

First, recognize WHO is doing the loving. God! He is not only initiating love, He IS LOVE (1 John 4:8, 16)! Next, appreciate who is on the receiving end of that love: The World! Sadly, this love is not necessarily reciprocated. Nevertheless, this love is so pure, so full of hope, so deep that the word “so” comes before “loved” to help us grasp the greatness. This fierce love has no other option but to GIVE. And what does God’s powerful love give to the world? His Son. His One and Only! But the depth of God’s love goes even deeper when we realize, He did not only give His Son to be born a sinless, mortal man, He gave His Son to die! Surprisingly, the depth of God’s love goes even deeper when we understand, He did not only give His Son to die! He gave His sinless Son to die for the world’s sin debt—that which each person owed and could not pay! He gave His Son to be man’s substitute, carrying the sins of the world on His own body He descended to the depths of hell so that whosoever believes has eternal life.   

For God SO loved the world, that He GAVE His only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

This Christmas, I pray you experience the extreme love of God where you make the choice to believe in His Son by receiving the priceless gift of eternal life. Then it will be possible to live “giving” to others while experiencing God’s love daily. There is no better “feel good” remedy!