My mother lives in a senior care home in south Florida so we don’t see her as often as we’d like to. Her memory is not very good, but sometimes she says some amazing things. As our family gathered together at our home one Thanksgiving, we talked with her on the telephone. I was the first to greet her, but we passed the phone along until she had talked to all the children and grandchildren. When everyone had finished talking, the phone was handed back to me, so I was the last to hear her that day. She said to me, “You know, I think I just talked to six hundred people, and I told them all that I loved them, but I want you to know that I really love you!”

And that’s how it is with the God of the universe. He calls us, and he speaks first. He says, “I’ve talked to six billion people and told them all that I love them, but I want you to know that I really, really love you.”

That’s Christmas love. God’s love goes the distance from heaven to earth, from deity to humanity. Will you go the distance to Jesus? God’s love gave his one and only Son. Will you give him your best because you love him in return? The Bible tells us, “This is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We love, because he first loved us.”