WHAT TAYLOR SWIFT CAN TEACH US ABOUT THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTMAS
This year has been a big year for Swifties, with the ongoing ERAS tour and the release of her new album, The Tortured Poets Department. Fans everywhere have been listening to the album on repeat, trying to work out who the songs are about and hunting for any hidden ‘Easter Eggs’. For those who don’t know, Taylor has admitted she’s been putting little clues and hints (Easter Eggs) into her music and performances since she began her successful career. From her very first album, fans have been left asking if an item in a music video or a piece of jewellery she wore at a red-carpet event is an Easter Egg for a new release or a reference to an ex-boyfriend.
Taylor’s Easter Eggs often foreshadow things to come in her career but she isn’t the first person to come up with the hints and clues we call Easter Eggs because the Bible is full of them too.
Christmas is important to Christians because we celebrate the birth of Jesus. It’s one of the most important events in history but we don’t read about the birth of Jesus until more than halfway through the Bible.
God had been planning Jesus’ birth from before time began. From the very first chapters of the Bible, we know it’s going to happen because of all the Easter Eggs!
He gave loads of clues including where Jesus would be born, what kind of Saviour he would be, who his great, great, great (lots more greats) grandad is and we learn what he will do. The Bible tells us that he will save people.
That’s why Christmas is so important. For hundreds of years, God’s people waited for the one who would save them, the one God promised, the one foretold from the start. Throughout the whole Bible, God’s people looked forward to God sending a Saviour, who would bring us back into a relationship with himself. They waited and waited. Then the Saviour appeared! In a manger, surrounded by sheep, shepherds and wise men - the real-life nativity.
This matters today because not only was Jesus born, but he also died. At Easter, Christians celebrate Jesus’s death – which sounds weird, but bear with me. Jesus lived a perfect life but died a cruel death in order to save us. He took the punishment we deserve but he didn’t stay dead! Jesus rose from the dead and defeated death, so that we can be sure that death is not the end for us. That’s the whole reason he came!
Jesus is alive today and he offers forgiveness to all who turn to him. This Christmas, why not investigate the life and death of Jesus for yourself and ask him to show himself to you?
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