Christmas Day
I was
watching an item on Current Affairs recently which spoke about the growth
industry of what is known as Pay Day Loans.
These
are short term small loans that people take out with minimum amount of
paperwork and the money is in your account almost immediately.
The
concern about these types of loans is that they carry a huge percentage of
interest but you don’t realise because you’re supposed to pay them back within
a couple of weeks.
Those
rates are hidden otherwise no one would take out the loan.
They make
it sound easy but the rates can be something like 200% per annum.
So some
people end up taking out a couple hundred dollars to tide them over and end up
never paying it back racking up thousands of dollars for that small couple
hundred dollars.
And the
newest player in the game is called Afterpay where you can buy something now
and pay it off over 4 weeks with no interest which somehow makes people believe
they are getting free money – until they miss a payment and pay enormous
interest penalties.
As we
approached Christmas there has been a huge increase in people applying for Pay
Day Loans and Afterpay because they do not want their family to miss out on
celebrating the joy of Christmas.
The
last thing they want is to see the sad faces on their children missing out but
end up with a debt they cannot pay back.
So when
you love someone you will do anything to avoid seeing their disappointment even
sacrificing and going without yourself.
As we
read about God’s love for us that is exactly what we see behind the message of
Christmas.
We had
a debt that we could not pay back to God.
The
Bible says that the wages of sin is death and that debt was never going to be
paid by us.
But we
read in John 3:16 that God loved the world so much that he sent his one and only
Son so that whoever believed in him would not die but receive eternal life.
God’s
love saw him sacrifice everything for us.
So,
now, as we again read that the wages of sin is death, what immediately follows
is - but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God has
given to us the greatest Christmas gift anyone could ever give – eternal life -
but it cost God dearly – the death of his Son.
We
carried a debt that only God could pay off and he did so.
As we
celebrate Christmas again this year let us take a moment to remember what it is
that we are celebrating.
We are
celebrating God’s gift of Jesus Christ who brings to us the gift of eternal
life.
We are
celebrating that the debt that we owed to God – a debt that we could never pay
off has been satisfied in full.
It is a
debt that we can say is unfair because we were born with it and there was
nothing we could do to avoid it.
Or we
can with gratitude thank God that his Son, Jesus Christ our lord, who did not
deserve death was willing to give up his throne in heaven to descend to earth
and take upon himself our entire debt.
Christmas
gifts, Christmas feasts, Christmas joy, all help us to feel so amazing as we
gather to celebrate each year.
But
it’s the true gift – the gift of Jesus Christ, it’s the true feast – the feast
of Jesus body and blood give for us – and the true Joy that was sung by the
choir of angels at Jesus birth that is going to sustain us for the other 364
days of the year.
So as
you celebrate this Christmas, take the time to remember what it is you’re
celebrating.
Take a
moment to remember why you’re celebrating.
Christmas
is God’s own gift to you of his Son who gave up all that he had so that you
could have all that he has to give.
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