These Three Remain...

All I wanted to do was make a batch of our Christmas fudge. We've done it every year around this time ever since I can remember, and nothing was going to stop me from doing so again this year--not even when my mother told me that we couldn't use our traditional recipe because it uses Marshmallow Creme, and Marshmallow Creme contains the deadly (I'm serious) high fructose corn syrup. So, after doing a bit of research, I decided to make my own Marshmallow Creme--simple enough, right? As I began to get out the ingredients, I pulled out the "light corn syrup" as required, and discovered, to my utter annoyance, that this also contained high fructose corn syrup!! Off I went to my mom, asking her if we had any corn syrup of another brand. She replied that we did not, and that she did not even realize that the corn syrup contained HFCS. :P So back I went to the computer to find a recipe or appropriate substitute for light corn syrup. I finally found one, and soon had a jar of amber-colored liquid sitting on the counter; my corn syrup substitute. That went into the Marshmallow Creme recipe, and that into our traditional fudge recipe. All that, just for fudge. *sigh* Oh, but it was worth it...

I have discovered something about Christmas that had never really dawned on me before. Christmas is really not about Jesus. Hold on, before you accuse me of being blasphemous—let me explain. Christmas is most certainly about Jesus to a certain extent; the baby in the manger, God in flesh appearing, Jesus humbling Himself to come into the world to save us from our sins. But, if you think about it, is Christmas not also about our Father? The focus of the season has always been on the baby born in Bethlehem; but what about His Father? The one of whom the Bible says “…the Father himself loves you”? (John 16:27) When do we celebrate what He has done for us? He sent his one and only Son to Earth—His Special One. He understands what pain is all about; He experienced the ultimate form of it. But He so loved us that He sent His Son to die for us. In the age of the New Testament, have we perhaps lost sight of The Father? Many people seem to think that, with the ending of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, that the Father has stepped back to make room for the Son. No! The Father is all the more prevalent; Jesus said that if we have a request, go to the Father. He didn’t say, “Go to me and I will ask the Father for you.” He said go to the Father.

Please don’t get me wrong—I don’t want to minimize what Christ did for us by coming to Earth, nor do I wish to take the emphasis off of the Gift—such a wonderful, extreme physical manifestation of Love itself; but rather, I’d like to place more emphasis than has been in the past on the Giver Himself. Perhaps we should view Christmas as the day of God the Father’s gift, and Easter as the day of God the Son’s gift? Would there be the latter without the former? Would the former be as important without the latter? Again, please don’t misunderstand me—I believe with all of my heart that Jesus loves me with a love greater than I can even begin to comprehend or fathom; but does the Father not love us just as much? He longs to hear from us; He wants so badly for you to speak with Him, ask Him, thank Him….Is it not just as hard for the one who is sacrificing as it is for the one who is to be sacrificed (think of Abraham and Isaac)?

So, while please remember the beautiful, priceless Gift of the baby in the manger and what He represented, remember also the Giver and His overwhelming, enveloping, surpassing, self-sacrificial Love for mankind manifested on that night in Bethlehem.