Christmas Day Devotional

And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. I John 4.14

This verse is just one of the banners we raise today to declare God’s abundant love and initiative. The Incarnation is the ultimate expression of God’s desire to rescue, restore, and renew the cosmos, including you and me and all those we call family, friends, and neighbors, and even our enemies.

Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.

1 John 4.14 points not only to Jesus’ role as Savior but also to the divine relationship between the Father and the Son, a relationship overflowing with love that reaches out to embrace every last one of us, including the ones who may have found coal in their stockings this morning.

At Christmas, we celebrate the astonishing truth that the eternal Word became flesh to dwell among us. God’s sending of His Son reveals that salvation is not something we achieve but a gift we receive. It begins with God’s divine initiative and continues with the transformation of our lives through that love.

This Christmas, we marvel at the mystery of God’s self-giving and respond by sharing His love in our families, neighborhoods, and the world.

Almighty God, you have given your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and to be born this day of a pure virgin: Grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with you and the same Spirit be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen. (The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ: Christmas Day, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 213)