Long ago, before Time, before the Universe began, God longed to create us -- you, me, everyone -- and have a personal, one-on-one relationship with us. He created ...everything... just so He could create you and me, to live on Earth, to walk and talk with Him, daily. He created us to love Him, but love requires a choice -- the choice of living as He designed us, or going our own way.

Sadly one day those very first humans chose to go their own way, deceived by an adversary, deceived by their own desires. Sin came into the world, corrupting it and all of mankind ever since. He was and is and always will be a perfect God; not out of arrogance but because He just is; He is holy and we are not.

With that one act we, all of us, are separated from the One who created us, forever destined to exist apart from Him. But knowing all of this even before He created us, He also made a way to reconcile us, to redeem us so that we -- imperfect -- could once again be with Him -- perfect. That separation is Death, and only Life can conquer Death; Life is in the blood. Because of our sin nature we are deserving of death, permanent separation from God, but God chose to sacrifice His own Son to atone for our shortcomings.

Since sin and corruption came into the world through man, only a sacrifice -- the shedding of blood -- by a man could overcome it. But not just any man, only one who is without sin, pure and blameless. God the Father sent His Son, who is also God, to be born of a woman (not of a man), to live a perfect and blameless life, and to die in our place. On that Holy, Blessed night in Bethlehem so long ago, The Son of God also became The Son of Man, born humbly in a feeding trough, wrapped in rags, all for you, and for me.

But Christmas -- the celebration of God leaving the glory of heaven and being born into human flesh -- is not the end, but only the beginning. Because He, Jesus, God the Son, lived without sin and died on a Roman cross without sin, we no longer owe that death sentence; He paid it, in full, for every man and woman on earth, for all time.

And all you and I have to do is accept that gift that He gave to us. You don't have to earn it; you can't earn it. You can't buy it. It is a free gift, given to us because of God's grace, a gift we don't deserve and can't earn. It is a free gift to return us to Him and redeem us from the Death we deserve, a death and separation that never ends; a gift He gave because of His mercy; a gift to us because of the immeasurable and unending love of the God who created each and every one of us.