Jesus....THE ultimate Christmas gift

Putting away my Christmas decorations every year always makes me a little sad, and yet a little excited as well!
I love Christmas and everything that it represents, at least, what it represents to me. I know the Christmas holiday and season means something different for lots of people. To me, Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus, the chance at eternal life for all mankind, and unconditional love. Unfortunately, for many folks, Christmas is all about the presents, decorations, food, where to go for a Christmas vacation, who's house to go to for Christmas dinner, and where to go for Christmas eve, which family are you going to upset this year by not going to their house, and so on. So many lose the pure joy and excitement that Christmas can bring!
I think it is safe to say that I have been in the later category in some recent years, unfortunately! I can remember a time when gift buying (and receiving!) was more important than remembering and celebrating a savior! I know I am not alone when I reminisce about times that I fretted over whose parents home we would visit this year, and what food we would cook at our house or take elsewhere. I can remember agonizing over the names I had drawn for gifts and trying to choose the perfect, and inexpensive, gift for them! Then the agonizing would continue until way after the opening of gifts because I would be questioning my choice, wondering if the recipient even liked what they had gotten! I drove myself crazy at times over things like this!! Boy am I glad those days are behind me!
The past few years I have discovered what the most important thing about Christmas is to me. That would be remembering and celebrating what a precious gift was given to me, and anyone else who chooses to accept it, one very cold, lonely night a couple of thousand years ago. This gift is one that so many people choose to deny or forget about that I just cannot understand. There are tons of folks who profess to love the Lord Jesus Christ, yet when it comes to Christmas they become like crazed maniacs in search of the 'perfect' gift, or planning the latest, greatest vacation, or any number of other things so way off base of what Christmas is all about that I begin to wonder if they will ever find their way back!
Every year I read any number of emails, or Facebook posts, written by someone who wishes to argue the point that Jesus was not born on December 25 and that Christmas is just a holiday that was created by pagan business owners to increase their sales revenue!
Well, I'm going to be honest with you. I don't know if Jesus was born on December 25, 26, or April 15! I have grandchildren that have rarely, if ever, had their birthday celebrated, at least by the entire family and a host of friends, on the actual date of their birth! What matters is the celebration, the remembrance. Don't you think?
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, who is the main character in our 'text book'? How do you honor and remember him? Don't you think that remembering His birth on the same day every year makes more sense than for every person alive to choose their own date to celebrate? Well, I do. Even at that though, there are still people who do celebrate Christmas at different times, or on different days. What about the times you have attended a Christmas party with friends? Wasn't that a celebration of the birth of Christ? Or office/school parties? Christmas with the in-laws? You see where I'm going with this?
My point is that it really doesn't matter exactly what date Jesus was born on. What matters is the state of our hearts!
Are you celebrating Christmas just because everyone around you is? Maybe it's time that you consider what many other folks know, that Jesus, the Son of God, was born to a virgin, lived a sinless life, then was tried and convicted of crimes He did not commit, crucified on a cross, and rose on the third day from that grave! He did this to provide you and I with a means of salvation from our sinful lives!
Why not accept such an awesome gift?