More about Christmas:
'Jesus' Birth
\
Shepherds Rejoice!
The Three Kings
Christmas in Norway |
The most important
commandment comes first. "I am the Lord your God, you
shall have no other gods before me." Back in Moses'
time, most people thought there were a lot of gods. In
Egypt, the Sun God, Ra, was most important, but there were
gods who were responsible for wisdom, justice, death, the
sky, etc. It was sort of like Ra was president of a company
and lesser gods were in charge of different departments.
Sometimes the department heads would disagree, and it could
be very hard to figure out how to please them all! God makes
it very clear in what we call the 'appendix to (extra
information about) the First Commandment' that He only
wants us to worship Him, and nothing should even come close
to God's place in our lives.
In the first commandment,
God wanted us to know that He was the only one in charge and
that all good things come through Him. Many centuries
after He gave us the Ten Commandments, He sent us His son
Jesus so that we would understand that our God loves and
forgives us. When His Son Jesus was born, God put a
special star in the sky, the star of Bethlehem, to mark
where Jesus was born. Angels told the shepherds. Kings
came to see him. It
was a very big deal!
Next to the gift of being alive, God's love and forgiveness are the
greatest gifts of all, and they were brought to us by a
little baby born in a stable named Jesus. We remember these most precious
gifts when we exchange presents at Christmas.
|
