Coming to Town

We all know who's coming to town this evening. The kids will tell you. The news will tell you. The television shows have been telling you. Santa Claus is coming to town tonight.

Except, of course, no sane adult thinks this is true. Great. Now we're back to the beginning of the question. Who is coming to town tonight?

Most of us know that Santa Claus was originally modeled after Saint Nicholas, a bishop from Turkey around the late 3rd to mid 4th century. The story about him from which we got the fireplace and stockings stuffed with gifts is fairly well-known, too. A poor man had no money to use as a dowry for his three daughters, but Saint Nicholas tossed some gold into the stockings they had hung by the fire to dry, and they were saved. Great story, true or not. Clearly the source of our "Santa coming down the fireplace and filling up your stockings with gifts" tradition.

What is missed, however, is the point. The girls, in their time and their society, were not simply facing the shame of no husbands. They were facing being sold into prostitution. The point, then, was not the fireplace or the stockings or even the gifts. The point was salvation.

So, Christmas is the time we celebrate the Incarnation, the arrival of God's Gift to Mankind. Paul wrote, "Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!" (2 Cor 9:15). We know we "are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom 3:24). We are aware that "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom 6:23). The point is the same. Not "the gift", but salvation.

But it doesn't stop there. "Each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another." (1 Cor 7:7). We know that each and every believer receives the gift of the Holy Spirit and gifts by the Holy Spirit. Indeed, Paul tells us that "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." (Rom 11:29). Can't be lost. "All [spiritual gifts] are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as He wills." (1 Cor 12:11). These are wonderful gifts! But they are gifts with responsibilities. Paul warned Timothy, "Do not neglect the gift you have" (1 Tim 4:14). Peter said, "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace." (1 Peter 4:10).

It's Christmas Eve. Someone is coming to town. And it's not Santa. It is the One who is already here. And He is God's gift to us and brings with Him gifts from God for us. Now, that is something to celebrate.

"Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!"