Cardboard Christmas

We don’t buy our little boys many toys. We don’t have to because Grandma does it for us. We have a special place in the corner of the living room where our little 2 year old Jared can keep his toys. The other day he had lost interest in them and began to rummage through drawers. I directed him to his corner and the brightly colored toys for him to amuse himself with. Amongst that pile of play things was a discarded cardboard insert from a fabric spool. Instead of going for the nice store bought items, he began to play with that piece of cardboard and was soon sharing it with his baby brother who also enjoyed playing with it.
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That brought to mind memories of my own childhood. We typically received a lot of toys at Christmas time. Again, my Grandma and Grandpa were big contributors. In spite of all the toys, one of the best things about the Christmas gifts were all the boxes. It was so much fun to play with the boxes that the gifts came in and the bigger the box, the better.
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I remember one year in particular because there were some especially big boxes left over after the gifts had been opened and Mom let me have them. Wow! I wasn’t all that big yet, and these boxes were big enough for me to crawl into. I then got an idea. If I taped the boxes together in an “L” shape and cut some windows in one it would look like a truck cab. I was able to talk Mom into letting me use a scissors, and have some masking tape (I had not yet discovered duct tape). Soon I had my own toy truck that I could sit in.
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I can’t remember anything else I got for Christmas that year, but I can still remember that cardboard truck, and apart from the masking tape, it was free. What a precious reminder that the best things in life really are free.
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We must not forget that the real meaning of Christmas is not about boxes and toys, or even about us giving gifts to each other. It is about God coming into this world as the Son of God in order to give the gift of eternal life to all who believe in Him. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
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The best Christmas gift of all is not a cardboard box or a fancy toy. It is the salvation that comes through belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. In order to really understand that gift, we must understand John 3:16. Just as my Mom loves her grandkids so much that she wants them to have Christmas gifts, our Heavenly Father loves us enough that He provided a way for us to have eternal life.
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The reason we needed that gift is because of sin. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Notice that it is a gift, and looking back at John 3:16, we realize that all we have to do to receive that gift is to believe. Ephesians 2:8-9 also tells us, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
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So what does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? It means to believe God. That means believing all that God said about the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Read what God directed the prophets to write about Him in the Old Testament. Isaiah chapter 53, Isaiah 9:6, and Micah 5:2 are a few clear examples of God telling us about Christ long before He was even born. You need to believe that God said in Isaiah 6:9 that Christ is the Mighty God. That means you have to believe what Christ said about Himself when He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)
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Belief in Christ means believing everything He says and thus putting your complete confidence in Him alone for your salvation. If you do that, according to His words in John 3:16, He then guarantees you everlasting life. That is a gift that lasts forever. My mom threw away my cardboard truck long ago, but I never have to worry about losing the best gift of all, eternal life by believing in Jesus Christ.
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The Christmas gifts my kids get from Grandma cost them nothing, but Grandma had to spend money for them. Our salvation is also a gift, and costs us nothing but belief. Instead of cash, the purchase of salvation cost God something even more precious. It cost Him the very life blood of Christ. “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28) If you want to receive the best Christmas gift ever, realize that it is free if you will believe God, and not argue with His truth concerning Christ as Savior. Jesus promised in John 6:37, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” That is good news, the good news of the gospel.