When the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci went to China in the 16th Century he brought along religious pictures to illustrate the Bible Stories for the people. The Chinese people readily adopted the portraits of the Virgin Mary holding her child, but when he produced paintings of the crucifixion and tried to explain that the God-child had grown up only to be executed, the audience reacted with revulsion and horror. They much preferred the Virgin and insisted on worshipping her rather than the crucified God.

As I glanced through the shelves of Christmas cards this year, I realized that in our country we do much the same thing. We observe a mellow holiday purged of any reminder of how the story, which began in Bethlehem, turned out on Calvary, with Jesus hanging on the cross for our sins.

As we celebrate the birth of the Savior today, let us unwrap all of God's Christmas present to us. God's Christmas present is Jesus Christ. However I don't just want you to unwrap the cozy little scene of a baby lying in a manger. I also want you to unwrap the Savior who lived a perfect life and died on the cross. In the lesson for this Christmas morning, the first 14 verse of John's gospel, the present from God is completely unwrapped. This portion of God's Word helps us to see that when all the shiny wrapping and the bows are removed, the present is full of grace and truth.

As we tear of the ribbon and rip the lid off the box, the Savior is there, full of grace. John wrote in his Gospel, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This Word is the Son and Bible says that he is God. How important is this for us as we open the present? Well John goes on to write that the Savior was born into a world that is hideously dark with sin. The world has been dark with sin ever since that day in the Garden of Eden when man listened to the devil instead of God. Since that day, the world and everyone in it has been plagued by sin, and the Bible clearly says, "The wages of sin is death." This is the dark world our Savior our Savior was born into.

The beautiful part is that he was true God so that he could live perfectly on our behalf. Instead of death, which is in men, John says that in him is life, eternal life. All this was accomplished by Jesus giving up his life on he cross. God give us this life, eternal life, for free. He charges nothing, asks for nothing in return. It is pure grace.

So when we open this gift from God, we see how full of grace it is. Let's open it a little more and see what else God reveals with this special present today. I would like to jump ahead in the Savior's life to just before he would make his trip to Calvary. He is standing before Pontius Pilate and Pilate cynically asks Jesus, "What is Truth?" How ironic! The truth was standing right before him. But look at our society today. Isn't it the same? Here we are celebrating a holiday named CHRISTmas with the Savior's name boldly emblazoned in it. The truth is right in front of people and yet they cannot see it through all the glitter and tinsel. Unwrap the whole present from God and see that it is also full of truth.

John continues to help us unwrap the present from God. He writes that the light, which shone in the world, was not recognized by the world, nor was it received by it. How true that is! Here we are celebrating the greatest gift ever given, and even if our society can get past the reindeer and Tiny Tim, it seems to get stuck in the stable of Bethlehem. It often doesn't realize that the baby will grow up and be a man. It doesn't receive him as the Savior who executed so that we could have eternal life. The devil's distractions have caused the world not to recognize or receive the whole gift of the Savior.

However if we continue to open that present and look deeper into it, we see the truth shining through. The truth is that the baby born in Bethlehem is our Savior. Believe in this gift, the whole gift. The Gospel of John reads, "to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." What a wonderful gift! When we unwrap the entire gift and see the whole Savior, we see the whole truth. Just two chapters later, John beautifully sums up the truth. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." God's Christmas present to us is full of truth.

Now that we have unwrapped all of God's present to us, we can see the Savior lying in a manger and dying on the cross. Let us celebrate today and everyday, this awesome Christmas present we have been given.