What is the best Christmas present you have ever received?

As a child, maybe it was a toy or a bike or a piece of clothing you had hoped and longed for.
As a parent of young children, maybe it was the joy you experienced as you watched your kids’ faces light up as they opened their presents.
As a parent of adult children, maybe it was those Christmases when everyone was able to come home and be together.

But toys break, bikes have flat tires, and clothing gets stained and wears out. The joy of seeing your kids’ faces light up is erased when they fight over who got the better presents, and after a few days together, your adult kids are ready to go back to their own families and lives.

Now imagine the greatest gift anyone has ever given – Messiah, God Himself entering into His creation.

Here is the announcement:

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” ²⁹ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
³⁴ And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
³⁵ And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. ³⁶ And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸ And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

(Luke 1:26-38, English Standard Version)

All the hopes of the world would soon be fulfilled, even if the world didn’t recognize that fulfillment at the time.

God was doing the impossible – giving a barren woman (Elizabeth) a child, and conceiving a child in a virgin (Mary). And that was just the beginning.

God’s greatest gift to all of humanity, past, present, and future, was a person – God’s own son, Messiah, Jesus.

God sent His son into the world because He loves us, and wants us to be reconciled with Himself.

Now that is a gift of greatest love, and of immeasurable worth.

Treasuring God’s greatest gift and sacrifice,
~kevin