“And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

The joy that surrounds Christmas is fundamentally the joy of God’s gift to us of the Savior. We celebrate with gift-giving, but that’s because God has given us the most important gift – the Savior, making possible our Salvation! And there is great joy in that. Consider the following experience I observed in a big, strong man in Cuba some years ago:

Tears came to his eyes as he read out loud in his own Spanish language the words from Romans 5:8: “But God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” And he hurried out of the room.

We were in one of the homes that the House-Church worker had led us to in Cuba that day. The man was, as the Church worker said, a “hard case,” but his wife had been praying for him. When he had composed himself, the man came back into the room and, with a little further discussion through the translator and a little more from the Bible, he prayed to receive the Lord as his Savior. It was another wonderful moment! He and his wife both gave out great big hugs, with big smiles on their faces. They were overjoyed!

It was a blessing to see the hunger and sincere appreciation for the gospel-witness, both by the Cuban House Churches and by the people we visited. But because of the communist atheist government still in power, it was important to be careful. There is indeed a great spiritual harvest going on in many downtrodden places in the world today. The oppressed and poor of this world, God has chosen to be rich in faith (James 2:5).

“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). This is the promise of our great Messiah, our great Creator and King! The “great mystery” of the Bible is the great spiritual union of Christ in us, and us in Christ – a great Oneness! When that happens, in a spiritual sense, “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped” (Isaiah 35:5) – and we are invited to begin and continue a radical love relationship with our Lord!

The Living “Word” who “became flesh” at Christmas seeks to reveal Himself to us. Our part is to simply receive and reciprocate His love and fidelity. He does the rest. “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently feed those that are with young” (Isaiah 40:11). We do not have to strive.

The man in Cuba realized that God loves us so very much, even though He knows us thoroughly! That’s what touched him so - even though He knows all our failings, and even though we ourselves can’t abide with our own failings, God loves us! Why do we allow our joy to be robbed by beating ourselves up when He loves us in spite of ourselves? God says we are precious, even in our brokenness. Who are we to say differently? Rather, we can and should be rejoicing in a redeemed status with our Maker! We can embrace that joy by embracing and re-embracing “the Savior, which is Christ the Lord”!

• Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments

Check out more from Creation Moments @creationmoments.com/