This Season and Always Remember God’s Son, Baby Jesus, and What He Means for Families

…an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,

Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife,

because what is conceived in her Is from the Holy Spirit.

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,

because he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 1: 20-21

A little child picks up the baby Jesus from a nativity set. He stares at the little baby, and we wonder what goes through his mind and heart. 

Jesus is a little baby.

He is like me.

And he was. Just as our children struggle to learn to walk, feed, and dress themselves, so did Jesus. You don’t have to be an adult to be filled with the wonder of what God’s Son who created the world without beginning or end did to save us from the mess that we are.

When children and adults have meltdowns during these busy Christmas days because we didn’t get the present experience we wanted, God draws upon us to meditate on the gift he gave us that first Christmas: his own Son! 

Think of the completely vulnerable baby who came to rescue us—who was also completely vulnerable without the powerful love of God. 

Think of the tiny hand that would someday be scarred as he defeated Satan and death…forever. 

Think of the baby who never, ever sinned from the cradle to the cross. He had not one whim of selfish reaction when other children hit him or religious leaders doubted him.

Not one sin.

Think of the tiny face that would sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane as he faced the agony of becoming our sin and enduring hell to give us his righteousness.

A Christmas family devotion:

Read Matthew 1:20-21

Find a picture of baby Jesus or have a nativity set that everyone can look at.

Ask each person what they think it must have been like for Jesus who is fully God and came as a little baby.

How does it make you feel to know that Jesus took the punishment for the things we do that hurt others?

Let each person have an opportunity to talk to Jesus and tell them how they feel.

Sing a favorite Christian Christmas hymn or song together.