It is rightly said that Christmas is a time for children.  Children are very happy and eager at Christmas time.  The children are excited about today and the whole Christmas celebration.  They have waited for this holy night when we can sing the special songs and proclaim the Word telling of the birth of our Savior.  Christmas is indeed a time of childhood.

But it is also true that Christmas is only for children.

Are we not all children, children of God's love?  No person is ever so grown up that he or she has outgrown the love of their Heavenly Father.  Even if someone is one hundred years old, the clear, wonderful story of God who came as a child, is not too childish.  To grow up in Jesus actually means becoming more and more a child with every passing day.

"Oh, Come, Little Children; Oh, Come One and All"  -- the well known children's Christmas hymn, is not just a call to the young, but it is an invitation to "come one and come all."  Come, join the children.  Be a child.

What is a child?  A child is one who loves to tell. 

It's true, isn't it, a child just can't hold in a secret or a wonderful message.  I had a little girl at my house who once came home with her mommy and sisters and said, "Daddy, we didn't have our picture taken today for your Christmas present." 

We children love to tell. 

Tonight we tell the happiest story there ever was.  It is about God's gift to all the world.  God gave you and me our Savior Jesus who set us free from all sin and sadness.  God's children love to tell.

Something else is true of children.  We love to play. 

We love to act out many things.  We may pretend to be an animal like a sheep or a donkey.  We may pretend to be an angel or a shepherd.  At Christmas, all God's children, young and old, play the role of the angels.  We sing of God's love and rejoice in telling all the world of the joy of Christ.

We act out being shepherds, ordinary folk who wonder at God's goodness that you don't have to be an important person or a rich person or a smart person to understand that God cares about everyone.

Children may portray Mary or Joseph, kneeling by Jesus' manger and worshipping him as Lord. 

You know something?  You and I can even play the baby Jesus by seeing God first in everything and loving one another above all else as He loved us.

One more thing makes a child of us all.  God means for us to understand his love. 

Children practice hard in school to learn and understand things.  It takes a lot of work to remember names of things, numbers, and the alphabet.  Children may not even be able to remember the names of their mom or dad, but children can understand their love.  Children respond to love.  God's children respond to God's love.  Those who can't are too grown up to see that Jesus' love is meant for them.

Jesus once was Himself a little child.  Christmas was His birthday.  Christmas was the time for God's plan to be realized.  Christmas was God's time for the God-Child, the time for Him to come for His people. 

Christmas was the time God chose to join His children as a child, to live, to die, and to rise again for us that we may trust Him with a child's faith.