I love Christmas. To me it means coconut cake, Christmas trees, presents, happy people and happy (if overplayed) music. Sometimes it means snow, like Christmas 2008 in West Linn. It was gorgeous!
But the big meaning of Christmas can be summed up in three words: We are saved! If Jesus had not been born, well, just imagine a re-do of It’s a Wonderful Life where the world is without Jesus Christ instead of George Bailey. You really don’t want to go there!
Without Jesus Christ there would be no faith-based access to God. There would be no one to deliver us from God. (Sounds weird, but it’s true.) There would be no renewing of our spirits, and nothing we could start doing or quit doing could keep us from receiving what we already deserve. As I see it, the birth of Jesus Christ defines the essence of all that is good about Christmas.