Any student of salvation history knows fully well the consequences of a people, a church, or a nation that turn away from God and embrace idols and pleasure of sin. Christmas is about knowing God who became flesh to restore, reconcile, and renew our relationship with Him in order to receive the abundance of His love and mercy to safe lost mankind, mired in sin. Christmas celebration beyond fiction is the greatest and most apt opportunity and invitation to “Put off the old man and put on the new man, renewed in the spirit of your mind, and renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” ( Eph 4:23-24, Col 3:9-10).

The true meaning of Christmas is to know God who through the incarnation renewed and regenerated mankind. God became man and walked this earth in contrast to some who would assert that it is all fiction. To know God is to know that Christ is “the way, the truth, and life” (Jn 14:6). With our knowledge of God who became man and not man who became God, Christmas celebration beyond fiction invite us to put Christ first especially in the New Year. Graham Kendrick in one of his hymns put this better, ‘Knowing you, Jesus,’ with a call to put Christ first in our commitments. Let us prayerfully reflect on this hymn as we prepare to cross-over into the New Year 2021.

All I once held dear, built my life upon
All this world reveres, and wars to own
All I once thought gain I have counted loss
Spent and worthless now, compared to this
Chorus:
Knowing you, Jesus
Knowing you, there is no greater thing
You’re my all,you ‘re the best.
You’re my joy, my righteousness
And I love you, Lord

Now my heart’s desire is to know you more
To be found in you and known as yours
To possess by faith what I could not earn
All-surpassing gift of righteousness
Chorus

Oh, to know the power of your risen life
And to know You in Your sufferings
To become like you in your death, my Lord
So with you to live and never die
Chorus