This Advent we are going to hear a story. It’s a love story. But don’t worry, it’s not a mushy love story, it is a true love story. It’s the story of how much God loves you.

The story is called “God’s Love at Christmas.”

Once upon a time, actually, at the beginning of time, when God made the world, there was a man named Adam and a woman named Eve. God loved them dearly. He made them. He gave them food, animals, a beautiful garden, and each other. They loved God.

One day Satan, slithered into the garden. He did not love Adam and Eve. He did not love God. He did not want Adam and Eve to love God either. So, he tricked them into disobeying God. They took a bite from fruit that God told them not to eat. They acted like they didn’t love God.

But God still loved them dearly, and He had a plan. Adam and Eve were in trouble. They sinned. They were going to die. Their sons and daughters would die. Their sons’ and daughters’ sons and daughters would die. Their sons’ and daughters’ sons and daughters’ sons and daughters would die . . . all the way down to you and me, and my sons and daughters, and someday your sons and daughters.

But God loves us dearly too. God did not want us to die. God’s love was working to make us free. Free from sin and free from death. God sent forth Jesus, His only Son, whom He loves dearly.

St. John wrote, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9). Jesus was born to “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus “paid all I owed” through His birth, suffering, death and resurrection and so “set me free.” Because of Jesus, God’s Son, coming to save us, everyone can joyfully say, “God loves me dearly, Loves even me.” (LSB 392) Please join us throughout the season of Advent for our worship services and our home groups/Bible studies as they are all based around this wonderful truth of God's love for us in Christ at Christmas!