Christmas is a time for unbridled worship …

If you’re doing Christmas right, it’s a time when you just cannot contain your joy!

My first experience of this truth about Christmas was as a kid, being ecstatic about the gifts to be opened on Christmas morning. There was no other time in the year when we kids received such generous giving. It was amazing! So much so we could hardly contain ourselves!

My childhood experience wasn’t even a tip of the iceburg as to what that first Christmas was like. God had always been a generous and gracious giver to His creation, but His gift to the world that first Christmas day was so incredible, so off the charts, that heaven literally could not contain itself! As a minister and writer for more than three decades, I’ve preached and written about Christmas so many times that I’ve explored the Christmas story in just about every way you can look at it. But my very favorite part of the original Christmas story is how heaven just let loose with unbridled worship. Usually, the heavenly and the earthly are separated, at least visually, but when Jesus was born, heaven bent the rules and unleashed celestial-level worship in such a way that it penetrated into the earthly realm …

“That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. ‘Don’t be afraid!’ he said. ‘I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior — yes, the Messiah, the Lord — has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.’ Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others — the armies of heaven — praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.’” Luke 2:8-14.

A single angel was assigned to announce the birth of the Messiah to a handful of sleepy shepherds, but the news was so wildly exciting that “… a vast host of others — the armies of heaven …” couldn’t (or wouldn’t!) contain themselves and piled on in very public, unbridled worship!

You and I can know that ecstatic joy when we realize what excited the vast armies of heaven that first Christmas day is just as motivating to worship for US knowing that God gave His Son because He loves US, and through that gift God has made a way of salvation from sin and reconciliation with Him for US! Such profound news should strike such awe in our minds and hearts that we, also, are moved to unbridled worship!

How can you possibly contain yourself when you realize what God has given you at Christmas?!

Scotty