You are familiar with the plastic shopping bags. Some years ago I saw written on one bag: CHRISTMAS BEGINS AT NEW WORLD! ( New World=Supermarket) There was a picture as well if I remember correctly.

We used to live in Kaikohe for a long time. Once coming back from Whangaparaoa to Kaikohe straight after Christmas we made a stop in Whangarei at a parksite. I asked some young people in the park what CHRISTMAS meant to them. ( Personal Evangelism) “Being together with family and friends and good food,” was the answer. May be the good food reply indicates that it is true for some people that Christmas begins in the foodshops. But that is not a beginning; it is a dead end.

CHRISTMAS begins with the love of God when the Son of God came down to earth and was born in a manger in Bethlehem. He became poor that we might become rich. The Bible says it like that in Second Corinthians 8:9. He took our SIN and gave us his GLORY! Christmas for us begins when we see us as poor sinners and accept the glorious way of redemption the Lord has prepared for us before the foundation of the world.

wd