So many things come to mind when you hear the word “Christmas.” Having time off work or school to rest and relax. All the amazing food that is prepared and the over-eating that is done as a result of it.

The excitement of giving gifts and watching the faces of the recipients as they tear through the wrapping paper and bows. Decorating your house and your tree with ornaments and other festive trinkets. Spending time with family and loved ones just to enjoy each other’s company.

I remember that my parents always made a big deal about Christmas when my sister and I were young. My dad traveled a lot for work and he loved to buy gifts for us from the all places he had been and we loved seeing what treasures he had found for us that year. After my parents got divorced, they remained cordial enough with each other allowing us to continue to get together as a family for holidays. Even after my sister and I were out of the house and in college, the four of us would still get together to celebrate Christmas. Over the course of my entire life, my parents always emphasized how important it was that we all stayed close and spent time together with family, especially during Christmastime. In their eyes, this was the most important thing about Christmas.

As I was growing up, the vast majority of my extended family – uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents – lived very close to us, so during the holidays we would make the rounds to all the different houses to visit and spend time with everyone. Our family was a typical Mediterranean family, absolutely huge, so there was never a shortage of people to visit and food to eat!

As a child and young teen, I would have agreed with my parents that the most important part of Christmas was spending time with family. The religious side of Christmas was not really present in my life growing up as both of my parents were raised Catholic and didn’t really want much to do with religion. Occasionally, we would attend some sort of church service on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but we did it because it was “the thing to do” and not because it had any real meaning to us.

At the age of thirteen, I came to know Christ as my personal Savior and Christmas suddenly took on a whole new meaning, even though nothing had changed for my family. For all those years I had never known what the most important aspect of Christmas truly was – remembering the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It was no longer about the presents and the family visits and the food. I finally understood that Christmas was a celebration of one of the most wonderful and impactful events in all of history.

The Bible states that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16-17 nasb) This is why Christmas is so important. It is not because of the gifts or the time with family or the food or decorations. It is not the commercial holiday that our world has turned it into. Christmas is the celebration of the day that God sent His Son to live on this earth as one of us, only without sin. Christ temporarily gave up His place in heaven to be born into this earth to a young, unwed mother in a dirty, cold stable with only a dirty animal feeding trough to lie in. Our God and King entered the world in the most humble possible way knowing full well that He was coming to die. Though the birth of Jesus Christ into this world is the reason we celebrate Christmas, the story does not end there. It is because Christ lived a perfect life here on the earth as both fully God and fully man that He was able to be the perfect sacrifice that God requires to save us all from our sins. Because Christ did this for us…because He willingly gave up His life for us, we can spend eternity in heaven with Him.

My family still doesn’t know the true meaning of Christmas, but I praise God that I do through His grace. Just remember that when you strip away all the pomp and circumstance that surrounds this holiday, it all comes down to a child in a manger who was born to take away the sins of the world.

Mia Slager and her husband Josh reside in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Mia works as Worship Coordinator at Calvary Bible Church.