“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.” ~Psalm 42:1
Have you ever had an empty feeling inside or felt like something was missing in your life? Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God, our Creator, has set eternity in our hearts, and Philippians 3:20 reminds us that our citizenship is in heaven. God has given us good things on earth, but the only thing that can truly satisfy us deep down in our soul is him. Colossians 3:1-2 tells us to set our hearts & minds on things above, not on earthly things.
It is very easy to get caught up in the things of this world, especially when we are getting ready for Christmas. There are so many traditions we keep and so many expectations of what “needs” to be taken care of in order to celebrate. We can become stressed when we feel we don’t have enough money to purchase the gifts we want or when we don’t have enough time to shop, clean, bake and take care of our holiday to-do list.
Giving gifts and getting our homes ready for Christmas aren’t necessarily bad things; in fact, it can be a beautiful reflection of God’s love for us. What isn’t good is when we become so consumed with the “worldly traditions” that we lose our focus on Jesus. We must keep Jesus first in our lives and let all that we do be an overflow of the love that he pours into our lives and spills out to others. The true meaning of Christmas is found in Christ, and only Christ can satisfy the longing of our souls.
God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be born of a virgin, live a sinless life and then pay for our sins by dying on the cross so that we could be made right with Him. You see, God, our Creator, is holy & perfect, and sin separates us from Him. The penalty for sin is death. So, Christ, who was without sin, took the punishment for our own sin by dying on the cross. When we accept his gift of dying in our place and submit to his Lordship, we are promised eternal life. Even though our physical bodies will die, our souls will live with Him in heaven forever.
Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the greatest gift of all. Our soul cannot be satisfied until it is right with God. As a deer depends on water for life, so we depend on Christ for life.