Merry Christmas!

"For God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life"

-John 3:16 NLT

This verse in scripture is probably the most quoted verse of the Bible. Almost anyone who has either visited church a couple times in their life or have been raised in church and have attended for a very long time can most likely quote this very verse to you and tell you exactly where it is in the Bible. The most amazing part is that no matter how many times we hear this verse, we can still take from it and apply it to our everyday lives. What is mind blowing about this particular verse is how it so eloquently states the condition of Gods love for us. God has given His son to be sacrificed for our sins. God did not give up His Son for those He knew would accept Him but for everyone. The sacrifice was made for the most moral of people to the person who committed the most heinous crime. This might rub some people the wrong way but if you look at the fact that Jesus died for someone like Mother Theresa and in the same way died for Adolf Hitler, that shows powerful love and mercy. I am in no way condoning the acts of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany by any means but I just wanted to simply paint a picture of God and His great love for us. I think it is nothing short of amazing how God could know people would reject Him but still went through all the pain of an agonizing death. God has just as much love for the judgemental, selfish Christian that I am to the most oppressed and neglected child living on the streets. It makes me feel so small but delighted when I think about how God doesn't see my imperfections but visualizes the potential He sees in me. He knows I will be a work in progress till the day He returns to take me home. No matter how many times that I think I have my life figured out, He will always be there to kindly let me know that I don't. His love covers a multitude of sins. God loves me just as much as the agnostic or the athiest and accepts us for who we are. No matter what race, ethnicity, lifestyle, or religion; God has a special love for you no matter what "church people" may say. You would think by the way some Christians act that they were working for the Devil with how much hate language is spewed out of their mouths. Life is too short to get caught up in the details but to understand that God loves you for who you are. This is what Christmas time should be about but sadly we have many people who get caught up in spending so much money on family and friends(myself included) and we forget about what this time of the year is truly in remembrance of. We shouldn't celebrate this attitude once a year but every single day. We should be giving of our time and helping out the less fortunate whenever we can. We need to make Christmas about Christ and remember the love that He has for us.