For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11
The big Christmas tree was loaded with toys in addition to all of its ornaments. A crowd of orphanage children was gathered nearby, lined up to meet Santa Claus, and to receive from him a toy from off the tree. As each child approached, the jolly elf reached up to the tree and drew down a toy, then presented it to the child. ‘For you,’ he said as he handed a shy little girl her toy, ‘a pretty dolly’. ‘For you,’ he said to a bright eyed little boy, ‘a teddy bear’. Quickly the children came and went, and quickly the toys disappeared from the tree. Finally, only one little boy was left, and he shuffled up to Santa, with a look of expectation in his eyes. Santa looked all over the tree, but could see no more toys to remove. He turned to the little lad and shook his head. ‘They’re all gone, I’m sorry,’ he said. Hope turned to tears in the boy’s eyes, and his shoulders began to shake with sobs of disappointment. ‘Let me look again,’ Santa said, and turned to examine the tree more thoroughly. With a glad cry of ‘Aha!’ he reached to the very back of the tree and pulled out a beautiful sled. ‘For you,’ he said to the boy, ‘a sled for Christmas.’ Tears turned to a radiant smile as the little boy hugged Santa and took his new sled, the best present he had ever received. But not nearly as wonderful as the present you and I have received.
The angel’s proclamation to the shepherds of Bethlehem was the greatest news the world had ever heard. ‘Unto you… a Saviour!’ Think about that today. A loving God in Heaven provided for undeserving sinners like you and me a Saviour. The angel’s message that day was for shepherds. But it rings down through the centuries and millenia since with its never ending impact, to every sinner who will hear the angel’s proclamation: unto you, a Saviour.
We gaze by faith into Bethlehem’s manager and declare, unto us a Saviour. We read of His holy life, His wonderful teaching, His great miracles, and His tender kindness to all, and realize that God declares: unto us a Saviour. We review His shameful betrayal, His cruel and unjust trials, His savage treatment at the hands of careless soldiers, His agonizing crucifixion on Golgotha’s mount, and His unfathomable torment at the weight of our sins’ heavy punishment, and declare, unto us a Saviour. We gaze with joy into an empty tomb, and thrill to the knowledge that unto us a Saviour was given.
How sweetly the knowledge fills our souls this Christmas day that our God has given to us a Saviour, His own Son! – Jim MacIntosh