It’s December 25 so may I greet you all a very merry Christmas! Hope you had a wonderful time with your family last night during the “noche buena” as we traditionally call it here in the Philippines. As for me and my family, we just had a late dinner at around 9:00 p.m. then we watched the movie, “Klaus” at Netflix as requested by my daughter. The movie ended at around 12 midnight and I was already sleepy so off to bed I went. My wife was already sleeping at the sofa before the movie ended hahaha! So that was our “noche buena.” Just another dinner with some cake and vegetable salad.

Some people go to great lengths debunking Christmas as pagan in origin and all that stuff but missing the point that “the God who saves” (that’s what “Jesus” means) is “God with us” (that’s what “Immanuel” means). Yes, that’s the point. When Christ was born, two names were to be given to the Christ (Messiah), Jesus and Immanuel as the angel instructed. The God who saves is now one with us and one of us!

When the Son of God became human, he took all of fallen and sinful humanity to himself and by doing so, all of humanity became clean, righteous and sinless. Christ came to reconcile the whole world to himself (2 Cor. 5:18-19). This is already true for all of humanity. God has already reconciled all of mankind to himself.

That being the case, God through the Apostle Paul encourages and appeals to everyone of us to be reconciled back to him (2 Cor. 5:20). If we have forgotten God for some time now, it’s a good time to consider getting reconciled back to him. That would be a wonderful and loving response that we can make. Let’s all get back to God. And of course, let’s all get reconciled back to our friends, relatives, neighbors and others whom we may have had some misunderstanding before. It’s time to be reconciled back to God and to our fellowmen. That would be a nice “new year’s resolution” beginning next year! Merry Christmas one and all!