Dear China friends,
THE REAL
SANTA
I have fond memories of
believing in Santa Claus as a small child.
Perhaps you did too. I was
disillusions to find out that there was no Santa.
It was just my parents playing
a game with me! But you know there is a
Being that has all the supposed powers of Santa and even more!
I remember looking forward to Santa bringing
the gifts I had hinted for months before Christmas (December 25th). But now I understand that there are more
important gifts than I knew about back then.
That is the gift of God’s own Son.
“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they
will call him Immanuel – which means ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23).
As a child I knew that Santa brought
presents only to good little boys and girls.
And also I knew that I was not always that good. But Santa Christ has gifts for those who were
not that good. “Christ died for the
ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a
good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew
no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (II
Corinthians 5:21).
Not only did Santa Christ bring me the gift
of God’s righteousness but also the gifts of “love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faith-fulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22,23)
through His Spirit that lives in us! And
even more important “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does
not have the Son of God does not have life” (I John 5:11,12).
In contrast to once a year visits from
make-believe Santa, Santa Christ promises to live in us every day. ““If anyone loves
me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him
and make our home with him” (John
14:23). “For he has said, “I will never
leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I
will not fear” (Hebrews 13:5,6).
I hope you have an enjoyable Christmas with
your family. My daughter Carolyn will
celebrate Christmas with me. Please
consider the presents that Santa Christ wants to give to you.
Your friend,
Tom Atkinson
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