What If He Hadn't Come?

Today we don't just celebrate 20 days until IMAGINE CHRISTMAS, we have a reason to celebrate because it's Sunday!  I love Sundays.  We get 52 of those a year, so how awesome is that!  And I love Christmas just as much.  We only get to do that for a few week each year.  I started thinking about why we celebrate Christmas.  It isn't because it's a great time to give gifts.  It isn't because it's fun to hang the stockings and decorate the tree...no, we celebrate Christmas because it is when Jesus came to dwell among us.  IMAGINE this for just a moment...what IF He hadn't come.  Would we still celebrate?  To be honest..what reason would there be to celebrate? As a Christian, we celebrate that we'll live with Him forever.  We celebrate the hope He alone gave us when He paid the sacrifice for our sin.  If He hadn't come...we'd be just like the people in the Old Testament.  We'd be waiting, hoping, longing for a Savior.  IMAGINE that if He hadn't come, when you reach for your Bible in church today...the pages from Malachi on would not be there.  No record...no hope.  There was a 400 year silence from the last word written in Malachi to where the New Testament begins.  And it begins by telling the birth of Jesus.  Would you or I have a reason to get up in the morning, dress our crying kids, weather the cold temperature and go sit in church for 3 hours if He hadn't come?  IMAGINE what it would it be like to stand around the deathbed of a loved one?  HORRIBLE! Thank you Jesus for choosing to come.  For giving us HOPE and a FUTURE!  Today, this Sunday, I choose to celebrate You and your choosing to come and be EMMANUEL, GOD WITH US!