Is choosing your Christmas gifts a problem? Most of us find it is. We try to give what our friends would like or what we judge they need most. We don’t want them to be disappointed with their presents and think we don’t care. When we were children we saw Christmas more as a time for getting than giving, but as adults we are all too well aware that there is no getting without someone spending and giving. Many people believe that Christmas has something to do with God giving and Christ’s birth at Bethlehem.

The gift that God gave was carefully chosen. God’s Christmas gift to us was His Son, Jesus Christ, given because He loves us and to be our Saviour from sin. He gave what we needed most – a Saviour. A Saviour is someone who saves, whether it’s the lifeboat man out at sea rescuing us from peril, or the fireman rescuing us from the burning building. And Christ is a Saviour able to rescue us from the danger that we are in because of sin, and to keep us safe. The Bible teaches that “it is appointed unto men once to die and then comes judgement”. We can’t do anything to save ourselves other than to accept by faith what Christ did for us on the cross; He was “made sin for us… that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”. We will never obtain salvation by religion or ceremonies or good works. God Himself has done everything and paid the price that we might have the gift of eternal life. That price was not silver or gold or precious stones, but the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ at Calvary. This greatest of all gifts – salvation from sin, eternal life - is offered to us freely through Christ. We must accept it on a personal basis between God and ourselves through simple faith and trust in the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.