I remember the moment I really, truly, deeply believed Jesus was who He claimed to be, and I encountered him. I grew up attending church, went to a Christian elementary school, and said I loved God. Then, we moved from El Paso to Las Cruces when I was 9. For the next few years my family attended church sporadically, I attended public school, and did not give much thought to what I believed about Jesus. My freshmen year of high school, my then-Mormon best friend and I began searching for a club to get involved with. We stumbled into a Student Venture meeting our fall semester (the high school ministry for CRU). We began to attend the weekly meetings, learning, and began talking a lot about what we believed- especially as my friend began to wrestle with the theology she grew up with in Mormonism. Spring Break of our freshmen year, we traveled with a group of students from my high school and various leaders to New Orleans on a mission’s trip for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. This trip is when I began to wrestle through the idea of my faith becoming less head knowledge and wrestling through what I actually believed- did I want Jesus and following him to define me?

That summer, again with Student Venture, my friend and I traveled once again to Colorado for their summer conference. It was here, one night, side-by-side, as Tenth Avenue North sang in the background (who was just starting to play music, by the way), we both encountered Him. I can remember the feel of the hard gym floor as my forehead rested on it. I can remember the darkened room and the songs playing. And I can remember weeping, next to my friend who wept, as we both were swept up in the beauty of grace, in the newness of life we both believed was now ours. Jesus was born so that I could know him deeply & intimately and be fully known. Jesus was born so I could have that moment.

Justin reminded us that Jesus’ birth is the essential element to our faith. As the Christmas hymn states, “born that men no more may die”. Jesus came to bring life. Without His birth, we would only know death. We all celebrate our birthday each year. But, as followers of Christ, the idea that we are “born again” is worthy of our admiration, joy, and thankfulness. We all must be born again. It is a leveling concept- for those with self-righteous tendencies who think they must prove, earn, and add to their salvation, and for those who think they have done too many wrong things, their sin is too great, we all must be born again. And just as Justin so beautifully pointed out, just as we didn’t contribute anything to our own birth, our second birth is entirely the Lord’s doing. All we can do is receive it.

Once we have new life in Christ, we are adopted as His child. He now loves us like He loves Jesus, bestows rights upon us, and we have intimacy with Him. We see the world differently. And we cry out to Him, because all our hope lies in Him. And this reality makes Christmas all the more wonderful and meaningful. Jesus’ birth gives us new life, because He is the true life.

~Bronwyn Siebert