The Cost of Christmas
It cost Mary and Joseph the comforts of home during a long period of exile in Egypt to protect the little babe.
It cost mothers, in and around Bethlehem, the massacre of their babies by the crude order of Herod.
It cost the shepherds the complacency of their shepherd’s life, with *the call to the manger and to tell the good news.
It cost the wise men a long journey and expensive gifts and changed lives.
It cost the early Apostles and the early church persecution and sometimes death.
It cost missionaries of Christ untold suffering and privation to spread the Good News.
‘It cost Christian martyrs in all ages their lives for Christ’s sake.
More than all this, it cost God the Father His own Son-He sent Him to the earth to save men. It cost Jesus a life of sacrifice and service, a death cruel and unmatched in history.