The prophet Isaiah had a message from God about what was coming in the future. What was coming? What is said about this child who is given?
This passage does more than just give hope about what might some day happen. The prophet describes what will happen using words that imply it has already happened.
“To us a child is born, to us a son is given.” These seem to be more than words that predict the future. They come across as statements of fact. The child is born. The son is given.
These words were written hundreds of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem and yet they were exactly true. God had imparted His plan to the prophet and the prophet knew in his heart that God would carry through on this plan. The birth and life of Jesus was in the works from the beginning of time. God was already preparing to give a gift that would save us all.
And it was no small gift. Jesus would take on the authority over all the world. He would come to reign as our Savior and Lord from his birth, to today, and on into the future. He would be and is the Mighty God, Prince of Peace.
We know the celebration of Christmas is coming. We may know what we are giving as gifts. We may even know what we might be receiving as a gift. But what we must remember as we celebrate Christmas is that this precious gift of Christ was planned by God for millennia. He had decided to save us and give us everlasting life for thousands of years before we even existed.
As we celebrate the gift let us also celebrate the love behind the gift. It is a love from God that has been there for a long time and will remain there for even longer.
DAILY CHALLENGE: How will you remember the reason for the gift of Jesus this year?
