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The best place to spend Christmas is at home. That doesn't mean your house, but where your heart is. That's why so many people travel thousands of miles at Christmas, to be where their hearts are. They want to be somewhere you feel comfortable, where you can be who you really are. Where you love and are loved in return. Home may not be as comfortable as the place you now live. The city may not be as fast paced as the one you see every day. In fact, mama's house may not be as plush as your apartment or condo, but wherever mama and papa and family lay their heads, under any circumstance, it is home. No wonder Charles Brown's simple song has survived for over 50 years; it says what we say to a distant love one, Come Home for Christmas.
Two millenniums ago God did a strange thing. Instead of staying home in heaven, he decided to leave the comforts of his heavenly home to an uncomfortable, cold and ungrateful world. He left the warm radiance of heaven and braved the chill of the silent night to be among the people he loved. His heart was with the people so he came to make even a manger in Bethlehem a place to call home.
Damien Spikereit of the Berean Christian Church relates the story of a peculiar tradition in his family at Christmas. Every year his family put up a Christmas tree, strung lights and decorated the trees with tinsel and candy canes. At the close of the tree decorating ritual, his parents would take out a manger scene that had been in the family for generations. It was a typical scene with Mary and Joseph, wise men, shepherds and everyone standing around. His parents then placed the manger scene under the tree. It began when he was a child, but he noticed that every year before Christmas the manger was always empty. But on Christmas morning as the presents were opened and everyone hugged each other, he always noticed that the baby Jesus was in the manger! No one saw him put there. No one knows when, but he was there.
When love comes, Jesus comes and the manger is never empty. Today, think of the joys of home. Think of the memories that God has created there. The manger is never empty there; God is there.