Today, I shaved my 8-month beard. And as I think I look ridiculous with long hair and no beard, I kept my razor's pedal slammed to the floor! As the last time I've seen my face I was 30+ lbs heavier, I was surprised to see myself again. Hello me!

Thus, I restart the beard clock—what, did you think I've decided to go clean-shaven? May it never be!

No, this action is more than just superficial. It's a fresh start, one that parallels my renewed passion in advancing and sharing my love for Christ. It's a reminder of why I choose God over that which fails to fill my appetite. My action is a symbol of how He has made me anew—don't think it so much like baptism, rather it's more akin to a memorial stone from the Old Testament, evidence for something I can look back and say, "Woo hoo! That happened THERE!"

It just felt like the right thing to do as we celebrate His coming in that manger and by extension, His next coming. Look, that's what all of this Christmas celebration is about, for if we did not believe in his resurrection, we would have little interest in what happened in that little town of Bethlehem over 2000 years ago.

I'm in a place these days where I care little about Christmas gift-giving; I'm by far more interested that this holiday celebrates the One who became the fulfillment of the Old Testament. He is the greatest man who has ever lived and not only does He know me, He LOVES me—He even has a special name JUST for me—check out this from Revelation 2:17: "...and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it."

Incredible. Who am I to deserve this? CLEARLY, it's grace.

I violated God's law; I was dead in my sin. I was set to pay eternally in Hell. And yet, God opened my eyes; He replaced my heart of stone with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Jesus took my punishment on his shoulders. And not only was I spared, I was adopted; I can call God, Dad. This is marvelous and is a fuller picture of the Christmas story:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Galatians 4:4-7

And I just realized everything I wrote can be found in Ephesians 2:1-10—it's NOT EVEN the text I've been studying lately:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:1-10, ESV