Advent Cards Day 11: A Fake Christmas
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“Itâs so pretty!â said five-year-old Jessie as she stood at the rope barricade and stared in wonder at the shiny balls, glittering stars, and sparkling snow on a Christmas tree at the mall. âIs the snow on the Christmas tree real?â
âNo,â said Jessieâs older sister, Dakota. âIt comes in a spray can, and you just spray it on.â
âIt looks so real,â said Jessie, disappointed. âWho are all the presents under the tree for?â
âTheyâre not real presents,â said Dakota. âTheyâre empty boxes wrapped to look like presentsâjust part of the decorations. Theyâre supposed to get people in the mood to buy Christmas presents.â
Jessie could hardly believe that the beautifully wrapped boxes were empty. She wanted to reach over the barricade, pick one up, and shake it.
Back home, Jessie told her mother about the tree. âThe snow looked so real,â she said. âAnd the presents did too, but Dakota says theyâre just empty boxes. Are they really?â
âIâm afraid so,â said Mom. âEven though theyâre covered in shiny paper and colorful bows, thereâs nothing inside.â
âThatâs sad,â said Jessie. âItâs not real at allâitâs a fake Christmas!â
âIn a way, it is,â said Mom. âAnd we wouldnât want to celebrate a fake Christmas, would we? Not at the mall, and not at our house.â
âAt our house?â Jessie giggled. âWe donât wrap empty boxes and put them under the tree!â
âNo,â said Mom, âbut if weâre not careful, the things we do to celebrate Christmasâall the parties and gifts and decorationsâcan distract us from the real reason we celebrate ChristmasâJesus coming to earth to die for our sins. Heâs the true gift of Christmas, and without Him, Christmas is emptyâjust like one of those empty boxes wrapped in pretty paper.â
âSo is it bad to do those things, like give each other presents or decorate the house?â Jessie asked.
âOf course not!â said Mom. âBut those things are like the pretty paper we use to wrap the gifts we give each otherâitâs not the gift itself. And all the fun things we do at Christmas point us to the real reason we celebrateâthat God sent His Son to the world to save us and give us eternal life.âÂ
So how about you?
Do you celebrate the real reason for Christmas? Or do you just focus on buying gifts or getting presents? At Christmas, we celebrate God giving us the best present everâHimself. He sent Jesus to save us from sin so we could have eternal life with Him. If you havenât received that gift, do it today by trusting in Jesus. (Learn more about salvation at keysforkids.org/GoodNews.)
Key Verse
Romans 6:23 “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Key Thought
Celebrate the true gift of Christmas.
Further Reading
John 3:14-21