People who celebrate Christmas for religious reasons, celebrate the birth of Jesus, the God who came down to Earth as a helpless baby to save the man from his sins. The circumstances surrounding his birth are described in the Bible and every person is familiar with them from their early childhood along with other sweet childhood memories of these special winter festive days.
God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a small village in Galilee to a young woman called Mary. She was a virgin, to be married to Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured woman! The Lord is with you!’ Puzzled and anxious, Mary couldn’t understand what the angel’s words meant. ‘Don’t be frightened, Mary,’ the angel told her, ‘for God has decided to bless you! You will become pregnant and have a son, and you are to name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Highest.’ Mary wondered how she, being a virgin, could have a baby. The angel told her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. So the baby born to you will be holy and he will be called the Son of God.’ Then the angel spoke to Joseph telling him not to be afraid to have Mary for his wife. The child she was bearing had been conceived by the Holy Spirit. She would have a son, and Joseph was to name him Jesus, for that child would deliver people from their sins.
