What are you Wrapped Up in?
How many of you enjoy wrapping presents?
I’m not the best at wrapping presents, and I almost always wait until the last minute to get the gifts wrapped.
I actually watched a YouTube video or two on how to wrap presents. I thought maybe if I watched a few videos of other people doing it, I might get better at it.
You may or may not enjoy wrapping presents, but I think we could all agree that over this past year we’ve all gotten wrapped up in all sorts of things.
You know what I mean?
People get wrapped up in all kinds of bad habits, toxic relationships, and other things that are self destructive.
People get wrapped up in wanting more and more and more, they run up credit card debt because they can’t stop clicking “buy it now” because enough is never enough.
People get wrapped up in social media, video games, and watching the news 24/7.
People get wrapped up in addiction, politics, power, success, and selfish ambition.
We may not like to wrap presents but we sure do get wrapped up in a lot of things!
It’s interesting, if we don’t choose what we want to be wrapped up in we’ll end up wrapped up in something that more often than not is the wrong thing.
What if we could choose our wrapping paper? What if we could choose what we get wrapped up in?
Christmas is Really All About the Wrapping!
You may have never thought about this, but the Good News of Christmas really is all about wrapping paper.
You probably know this… but Jesus wasn’t born on December 25.
Truthfully, Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Christ by the church, didn’t start until the fourth century. There’s a sense in which we make more of the birth of Christ than did our first century brothers and sisters in Christ.
No one knows for sure when Christ was born. Chances are it wasn’t on December 25. But from about AD 325 until now, Christians have paused to celebrate the birth of the Son of God. Here we are some 2000 years later remembering the story.
When Christ was born, do you know what his parents did?
They wrapped him!
Here’s how Luke tells the story… and listen to the words he uses…
And while they were there [in Bethlehem], the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them. – Luke 2.6-7, NLT + NKJV
Mary Wrapped Jesus in Cloth
Mary wrapped Jesus in swaddling cloths. You may wonder, what are swaddling cloths?
Typically, when a baby was born in ancient Israel they would take the child, wash him or her with water to cleanse them, then they would rub the child with a small amount of salt and olive oil to help clean and disinfect the child, then they would take a long piece of white linen cloth and wrap the newborn child.
When Alisha and I had kids the nurses wrapped our children in a swaddling blanket. They had our kids wrapped so tight I wasn’t sure if they could breathe.
Mary wraps Jesus! Not in wrapping paper. That would have been weird. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes. A long strip of white linen cloth, then she laid him in a manger!
When you think about a manger you probably think about this little wooden stand you see in all the nativity scenes set up at churches and in people’s yards. But mangers were not made out of wood, they were cut out of stone.
The stable where Jesus was born wasn’t a barn built out of wood like something you might see on a farm. It was a more like a cave. And in the wall of that cave a feeding trough for animals, called a manger, was cut out. That’s where they laid Jesus.
I probably don’t have to point this out, but don’t miss this. As Jesus enters the world he is washed, anointed with oil, wrapped in a linen cloth, and placed in a stone manger. Before Jesus faces the cross, His feet are washed by Mary, then anointed with oil. After the cross they take His body down, wrap him once again in a linen cloth, and lay him in a tomb made of stone.
Jesus Wrapped Himself in Flesh
Jesus didn’t necessarily choose to be wrapped in swaddling clothes at his birth or in a linen cloth at his death, but He did choose to be wrapped in human skin. Think about that. The God of the universe who cannot be contained chose to be contained in a human body just like the body that you and I have.
John, one of Jesus’ closest friends and followers said it this way,
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1.14
Jesus chose to wrap himself in human flesh and become like one of us.
Jesus wants to Wrap You in LOVE
What if we could also choose what we wrap ourselves in?
We don’t get to choose our skin, our body type, or anything like that. But what if we could choose what we get wrapped up in?
A few years after the birth of Christ, after Jesus died on the cross, rose from the grave, and ascended to Heaven the Apostle Paul wanted to make this point crystal clear to early Christians. Listen to what he wrote in Colossians 3.14:
Above all, clothe yourselves… put on and wrap yourselves in [unselfish] love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. (AMP + NLT)
The Apostle Paul wanted these Christians and every Christian to be wrapped up in the LOVE of God.
Why?
Because… this is what LOVE does. Love BINDS us all together in perfect harmony. Love UNIFIES us and BUILDS us up.
We live in a world that is wrapped up in a lot of things that divide us, polarize us, separate us, things that will tear us apart and even destroy our relationships.
But the story of Christmas is the story of the LOVE of God that came down from Heaven to Earth… LOVE that has the power to restore, redeem, heal, and make everything right and everything new.
Here’s the Good News of Christmas:
You can put on CHRIST because Christ put on YOU!
You see, Jesus became one of us and put on flesh so that you could become one with Him and put on LOVE!
Putting on the Uniform
So what are you wearing this Christmas? What are you wrapped up in?
Do we have any Dallas Cowboy fans in the house tonight?
In 1990 Emmitt Smith became a Dallas Cowboy. When he did, you know what he did? He put on this uniform.
This is what he wore, this is what he clothed himself in, this is what he wrapped himself in as a Dallas Cowboy. If you didn’t know, Emmitt Smith is the NFL’s all-time leading rusher with 18,355 yards and he won three Super Bowls with the Cowboys.
When he put on this uniform it changed his identity. This uniform identified him as a Dallas Cowboy.
Putting on a uniform doesn’t necessarily change your identity though.
If I put on this uniform, it’s only a costume. I didn’t do the work to learn the game, try out for the team, or earn a spot on the field.
Can I be honest? We got a lot of Christians wearing costumes. Putting on a uniform doesn’t necessarily change your identity.
But… when you spend time over time with Jesus, when you believe in faith, when you practice your faith by serving those around you in love — you’re not wearing a costume, your wearing your uniform. You’re wearing Christ. You’ve put on LOVE! You’ve wrapped yourself in LOVE.
Jesus is LOVE!
And when we all put on our uniforms — we are all on the same team, bound together in unity and harmony! Ready for game day!
Put on Love
I don’t know what you’re wearing this Christmas, but maybe you need to put on LOVE.
Maybe you need to take off ANGER. Take off HATE. Take off DISAPPOINTMENT. Take off SHAME. Take off GUILT. Take off whatever it is that is keeping you from wearing LOVE.
Above all, wrap yourselves in unselfish love.
Maybe you are wearing LOVE, but you’re also wearing a lot of other layers. You’re layered up like it’s cold outside so the LOVE you’re wearing is buried deep. Maybe it’s time to shed those layers and trust the LOVE of God.
Wrap yourself in the wondrous LOVE of God.
You can put on LOVE because Jesus put on flesh. You can wrap yourself in love because Jesus wrapped Himself in flesh.
And you know what love does?
LOVE has this unique ability to bring LIGHT into any situation. LOVE lights the way.
You’ve seen this. Maybe you’re having a bad day, then someone who loves you enters the room and everything changes. Love changes the room. Love changes the atmosphere. Love pushes out the darkness. Love lights the way.
This is what happened when Jesus, the LOVE of God, entered the world. His LOVE was a LIGHT and is a LIGHT to all those living in darkness.
The prophet Isaiah said,
The people who walk in darkness
will see a great light.
For those who live in a land of deep darkness,
a light will shine.
– Isaiah 9.2
May we believe in Jesus, the LIGHT of the world, and may His LOVE shine in our hearts.
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