Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading titled The Miracle of Christmas was written by Jennifer Benson Schultt.

At a garage sale, I found a nativity set in a beat-up cardboard box.

As I picked up the baby Jesus, I noticed the

finely sculpted details of the infant's body. This newborn wasn't cocooned in a blanket with closed

eyes. He was awake, and partially unwrapped with outstretched arms, open hands, and fingers extended.

I'm here, he seemed to say.

The figurine illustrated the miracle of Christmas, that God sent his son to Earth in a human body.

As Jesus' infant body matured, his little hands played with toys, eventually held the Torah, and then fashioned furniture

before his ministry began. His feet, once plump and perfect at birth, grew to carry him from place to

place to teach and heal. At the end of his life, these human hands and feet would be pierced with nails to hold his body on the cross.

In that body, God declared an end to sins control over us by giving His Son as a sacrifice for our sins.

Romans chapter 8, verse 3 says,

if we accept Jesus' sacrifice as payment

for all our wrongs and submit our lives to him,

we'll find relief from sin's bondage.

Because the Son of God was born to us,

a real, wiggling, kicking infant. There's a way to have peace with God and the assurance

of an eternity with him.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Romans chapter 8 verses 1 through 10. Therefore,

there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus,

the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the

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