Faith | He discovered Christmas was more than gifts and his dad’s ‘gravy’

I grew up forty miles north of Pasco on an irrigated farm. My parents always sacrificed a lot in order to give me, my brother and my sister a great Christmas. For me, Christmas was always the best holiday of the year.

Every year we would celebrate Christmas with good food, time off from work and school, and lots of presents. As a child, I believed in Santa Claus and enjoyed helping decorate the tree. My mom would always put an angel on the top.

I don’t remember my dad ever cooking anything except once a year at Christmastime when he would do what he called “gravy.” As a young kid, I was always interested when dad would say he was going to “make some gravy.” It didn’t take very long for me to find out that Dad’s “gravy” was my favorite treat, chocolate fudge.

My mom, on the other hand, was an excellent cook. I always looked forward to Christmas dinner of ham, homemade biscuits and bread with real gravy, and many delicious side dishes. We would have leftovers for days afterward.

Although we weren’t a particularly religious family, my parents were honest, generous, hard-working and incredibly loving people. My mom would occasionally mention God and would refer to him as “the man upstairs.”

I never knew the true meaning of Christmas until I became a Christian just before my sophomore year in high school. A girl on-staff for Campus Crusade for Christ shared with me the Four Spiritual Laws.

She explained the gospel, going through the booklet in such a simple yet understandable way to me, that it made sense.

That God loves me so much, and since we are all sinners in some way or another, we have separated ourselves from a perfect, righteous, holy God. Because of this, none of us can live in his kingdom.

She went on to tell me how God had sent a part of himself—his son Jesus Christ— to be born in a manger as one of us, having all the same temptations as we do to sin. Yet, for him to live a perfect, sinless, life—and be the perfect righteous sacrifice for us and deliver us from all our sins—he was brutally crucified on a Roman cross.

Miraculously, Jesus came back to life three days later. He did this for us so we can live forever in happiness in his kingdom one day, if we simply trust in him as our savior and Lord.

So I did believe that day, and that instantly gave me a sense of security—that some day when I die, I will go to live with him forever in heaven. I came to understand the meaning of Christmas at that moment.

Nowadays, I still appreciate the good food, time with family and presents at Christmas.

But, I certainly have a much deeper appreciation of knowing what the holiday represents: Jesus Christ being born, and what his life and loving sacrifice on the Cross did for me—and can do for you, too.

Merry Christmas!