Friday night while we were singing the different songs, we sang “You’re everything glorious,” “the grace that You gave is an open door,” “Noel, come and see what the Lord has done,” “the story of amazing love,” “I heard the bells on Christmas day”– hearing all these things and all of a sudden, I (Emil) was standing in the stable when He was born. I looked in the manger and He had on this little tuxedo, and I watched all these shepherds coming and the wise men and all these people were dressed in wedding gowns. I’m looking at all this and I’ve never seen anything like it and He said, “On the day I was born, the great courtship began.” He courted us for 33 years to become His bride. He courted us with the greatest courtship in the history of the world. There’s never been a courtship like it before or since. Then I had a picture of our nativity in the yard and I saw the cross over it—Wow, here He is born with the cross right behind Him. He was born to go there, and He was born to keep us away from that. He came to court us into the greatest love story ever. I kept hearing this, “Don’t lose Me through the holidays. It’s easy to look at money and presents and family and friends and going here and going there. Start with Me every day and then go do your stuff.” Stop at the manger for 5 minutes and thank Him for that courtship. I couldn’t help but laugh, seeing all these shepherds in wedding gowns but it was so real and it was so personal. It was a love I saw in their eyes and in His eyes, even as a newborn, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. We just can’t lose that.

Lord, we thank You that You exuded more love at that moment when You came to life on earth than this world has ever known. We thank You that You chose to come, You chose us, and thank You Lord for allowing us to choose You. We thank You and we praise You and we worship You. And every time we hear the bells, every time we hear the songs, every time we think of the gifts, we’re going to think of You—the biggest gift, the greatest gift, the ultimate gift that You gave to us.