The joy of Christmas comes from inside
Have you ever heard a bell ring before? A bell makes a happy sound, doesn’t it?
What makes its joyful sound? There’s a little ball inside that hits up against the outside of the bell, making the ringing sound you hear. The sound comes from inside.
You know what that reminds me of?
The joy of Christmas.
Joy doesn’t come from anything outside of us. It doesn’t come from presents under the tree or Christmas lights, although those can be very wonderful. Joy comes from inside of us, just like the joyful sound comes
from inside the bell.
How does joy come from inside us? How is there joy in our hearts?
Because we know our sins are forgiven.
Do you sin sometimes? I do. Christmas makes me joyful because I know God forgives my sins. It’s not because I’m better, it’s because God is glorious and God is loving and God forgives. The joy of Christmas comes from deep inside our heart because we know God loves us and God washes us clean from our sins.
If you hold a bell closed and shake it around, you’ll muffle the ringing and you won’t hear the joyful little sound.
Just like a muffled bell, our joy can be muffled at Christmas by getting caught up in things like worrying about getting presents, about having gifts for others, and so on.
If your joy is muffled at Christmas, maybe you’re not thinking about the right thing. We need to think about Jesus and all He does for us, all He’s given us and what He came to do. Christmas is a time to remember
that Jesus was born for one purpose – to die for our sins. So there’s sadness and joy all at the same time. Jesus knew why He was coming and He was willing to do that for you and me.
Prayer:
Lord, thank you for the sounds of Christmas bells and for the joyful ringing that comes from inside of the bell. And thank you most of all for the Christmas joy that comes from deep in our hearts. I pray that joy may be especially meaningful this Christmas and forever.
About the Redeemer Community Church PCA children's devotions:
Sometimes it can be hard to break down Biblical truths for our kids into easy-to-understand and easy-to-remember bite-sized pieces. Pastor Chuck does this weekly in his Children's Sermon, and we're sharing key points from those sermons here each week. Feel free to use with your littles as conversation starters throughout the week, reminders of what we learned in church on Sundays, and just general opportunities to share our love of God's word and His love for us.