If we want to have a special Christmas this year, we need to focus more on what God did that first Christmas instead of on the things that we do.

Can a beautiful and spiritually uplifting festival like Christmas lose its luster? Can the celebration of Jesus' birth become old, something we no longer anticipate with excitement?

Unfortunately, for some people, even for some Christians, it can. Worship services at the same times as in the past. The same Scriptures read. The same hymns and carols sung. The same decorations. The same crowded stores. Christmas gatherings spent with the same boring cast of characters: the same in-laws, family, and friends. Even the meals and desserts may be suspiciously similar to what has always been served.

We would like Christmas to be special this year. We want it to be satisfying and even exceptional. But how can we make Christmas special? How can we get Christmas out of the rut that we may perceive it to be in?

Here's a suggestion. If we want to have a special Christmas, let's get back into the Scriptures. In other words, instead of focusing on the mundane events around us and all the things we do, we need to focus more on what God did that first Christmas.

There was nothing ordinary about the things God did that first Christmas. Though the biblical accounts of Jesus' birth in Matthew and Luke are marked with simplicity and brevity, they are stunning in the absolutely amazing events that they report.

He is Immanuel

When the angel announced the birth of Jesus to Joseph, he said the child would be called Immanuel, which means, "God with us." God came down to this earth to be with us! He didn't come as our Creator, to be above us. He didn't come to be our Lawgiver, to be against us. No. He came to be with us—to help us, to love us, to save us.

Remember that this is the same God "who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see" (1 Timothy 6:16). This unapproachable God who forbade the Israelites to draw near to him on Mount Sinai under penalty of death actually drew near to mankind that first Christmas. This holy and righteous God who in the past could only be approached through mediating priests not only drew near to us—he became one of us!

But why? Why would God become man? If you were the president of a large corporation with a six-figure salary, with power and perks galore, would you give that up so you could be a janitor living from paycheck to paycheck? Even more remarkable is this, that God would want to become a man. God in diapers? The fullness of the godhead dwelling in a helpless infant? The God who supplies the needs of everyone dependent on a human mother for his needs? The omnipotent God hiding his power so he could be a weakling like us?