Devotion Booklets for Seasons of the Church Year 2016 | Page 36

Saturday—December 24th The Grace of God Comes to Earth Titus 2:11 Can you imagine a Christmas where your whole family got along? No fighting over presents, no arguing over which Christmas movie to watch, but everyone is relaxed, everyone is getting along. Many people long for that kind of peaceful Christmas. Just one day where the whole family is together, and everyone is genuinely happy. Well, snap back to reality. Your family may be the exception, but even the nicest, kindest families can still have disagreements. They can still have turmoil. The reason why that’s true is because of this thing called sin. Sin is a relationship killer. Sin causes dad to be selfish. Sin causes mom to lose her temper. Sin causes brother and sister to fight. Sin kills relationships. But even worse than an earthly relationship killer, sin is a spiritual relationship killer. From the moment that sin first appeared in this world, sin has been killing our relationship with God. However, God would not stand idly by and watch sin kill his world. On an evening in a little town of Bethlehem, God himself became one of us to restore our once broken relationship with him. This love, this act of God, this message of Christmas, you can sum it up with one word: grace. Grace is God setting aside his divine power in order to wear diapers. Grace is God telling an army of angels to stand down, so that an angry sinful mob can put to death their Maker. Grace is God looking you in the eyes and saying, all this I did for you. You look to Christmas, you look to Calvary, you look to the tomb, and there is one word that sums it up: grace, God’s undeserved love for you. On Christmas, the grace of God bodily appeared to offer salvation to all people. Rejoice! Your Savior has been born! Rejoice! This grace is yours! Rejoice! You get to share this message with all! PRAYER: God of Grace, we praise you for your underserved love. May your grace be with us and our family this Christmas. Amen. ACTIVITY: As a family, go to church and thank God for his grace. 36