The Message of Christmas – The Honourable Ed Fast

The Message and Meaning of Christmas

The Honourable Ed Fast

Member of Parliament for Abbotsford

Hi. I’m Ed Fast, Member of Parliament for Abbotsford.

It’s Christmas again, but this year, our world faces an unprecedented crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Governments around the world are in disarray and things don’t seem to be getting any better.

Many people have lost hope for their future and are facing a Christmas Season of loneliness and despair.

So it’s fair to ask, “Why should Christmas make any difference in our lives?”

As a follower of Christ, I have learned that the story of Christmas is about God’s intense love for us, His creation.

I believe that God desperately wants to have a personal relationship with each one of us. 

But something got in the way of that relationship. The Bible calls it sin, but history teaches us that, by any other name, human failure has consistently undermined our ability to live with each other and to live in a right relationship with our Creator.

The anger, the hatred, jealousy and injustice we see all around us are a product of that human condition.

So how does a perfect and just God, our loving Creator, reconcile Himself to us? How does God communicate with His creation in a way that demonstrates His love for us and His deep concern about our eternal future?

Well that’s where the story of Christmas comes into play. It’s the story of God taking on human form, in the person of a baby named Jesus. In a humble stable in Bethlehem. 

It’s about Jesus, living a perfect life of servanthood, sacrificing his life on a cross, to stand in our place and purchase the sin and failures that are such a pervasive part of our lives.

And it’s about the miracle of God raising Jesus from the dead to once and for all conquer the power of sin and restore us to Himself.

Friends, this is the Christmas story: the story of Jesus and his remarkable birth, life, death and resurrection, which have been the plumb line for my own life.

My career, my family, my friendships, my ups and downs, my successes and failures have all been shaped by my understanding that God does indeed love me and has a wonderful plan for my life, both here on earth and beyond.

Now like you, I am far from perfect, but I know that when I fall short of the standard God expects of me, He is there to forgive me and to lift me up again.

I am reminded that Jesus lived a life of serving others, the perfect example of how we should live in relationship with those around us. 

So at a time when the world is desperately hungering for the truth, let the timeless message of Christmas be your anchor and consolation.

And may Christmas remind you that God loves you and wants to provide you with eternal hope and confidence for your future.