Strange as it may seem, for millions of people Christmas time is not a happy ‘joy to the world’ occasion, but a time of deep loneliness due to lack of close family and friends.

Margaret Wagge recalls this loneliness one Christmas Eve when people all around were chatting excitedly while she stood dejectedly waiting for her train. She had been working alone all morning at her typing job and had no company to celebrate Christmas — no husband, no children, no home, just a rented room.

“Suddenly, I heard the crystal notes of two flutes interweaving. Down the platform were two young girls, playing Christmas carols. In their serene young beauty, they looked like angels in disguise.”

Margaret’s train came and went ... she lingered as if spellbound by the music of Christmas.

“Finally,” Margaret wrote, “I heard the girls play ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ and I found myself remembering words that I had not sung since my childhood. ‘O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in; be born in us today.’ And suddenly, there in this bleak subway station, everything was changed.”1

While this brief season may be unfulfilling, the true story of Christmas brings not just untold comfort for millions, but also the greatest hope in the entire world — the hope of God’s forgiveness of sins, the hope of unconditional love, the hope of peace, and the hope of eternal life with God Himself. The hope of knowing that in Heaven there will be no more sickness, sadness, suffering, or sorrow — ever!

Our Heavenly Father, the creator of all things, sent His own Son, Jesus, as a small baby on that first Christmas more than 2000 years ago, to show how precious and unique we are to Him and how much He cares for us and loves us.

Sadly, though, millions today still don’t believe the Christmas story. Recently, I had an email from a man who used some very foul language to curse what the Bible teaches. Yet another correspondent, who claimed to be a Christian, stated that when non-believers in God are sent to hell, they are totally dead and no longer conscious of anything. When asked for Biblical evidence for this belief, an answer was never received. In fact, the Bible teaches the opposite. Jesus said, “And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where ‘the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched’.”2

I was recently informed, too, that an extremely popular TV personality was about to publish a book stating many roads lead to God. It may be true that ‘all roads lead to Rome,’ but according to God’s Word, all roads do not lead to God.3

Jesus himself stated very clearly, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father [God] except through Me.”4 God’s Word also declares, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name [other than Jesus] under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”5

3 year-old Elaine shields her candle from the wind during Christmas Carols in the Johannesburg suburb of Soweto.
Photo: Walter Dhladhla/AFP/Getty Images

I would much rather believe what Jesus said and what God’s Word teaches than to follow what individuals think and what man-made religions say. Also, when we of ourselves decide what is the way or ways to God, we put ourselves above God and his Word. In so doing we make ourselves the judge of God — an extremely dangerous path to follow.

The fact is had there been any other way to God, why would Jesus have come to earth at Christmas?

All we need to do to receive God’s love is to admit and confess our sinfulness to him, thank him for giving his Son, ask for his forgiveness and invite Jesus into our hearts and lives as personal Lord and Saviour.

Again, as Jesus stated, “No one comes to the Father [God] except through me.”6

If you have never accepted God’s Christmas gift to the world; that is, God’s way of forgiveness and his promise of life after death, please turn to ‘Could God love someone like me?’ on page 11 and write to us or Contact Challenge Literature Fellowship

1. Waage, Margaret, B, The New Guideposts Christmas Treasury, © Guideposts Associates, Inc. Carmel, New York 10512, p. 19.
2. Mark 9:47-48Mark 9:47-48 (NIV).
3. For a comparison grid to show the difference between Islam and Christianity go online to http://tinyurl.com/ce7hrx
4. John 14:6John 14:6.
5. Acts 4:12Acts 4:12 (NKJV).
6. John 14:6John 14:6.