4. Red

This time of year everything seems to be red. You hang red balls of shine on the tree and hang a wreath with a big red bow on your front door.

Red is the color of Christmas, but I think it holds more than festive brightness.

Red is the reason we celebrate Christmas. Red blood that was shed on the cross. At Christmas we celebrate the incarnation and focus on the joyous fact that a Savior came.

Blood as morbid as it might sound is the center of Christmas.

When Christ was born He came into this world just as any other baby did and it was beautiful. Birth is messy and a bit disgusting, but we see birth as beautiful and breath taking.

Some thirty years later when Christ was nailed to the cross, beaten and tormented there was nothing beautiful. Only pain and anguish, but three days later the blood was gone and the punishment for sin had been paid for.

Beauty came out of the shed blood of Christ. The birth of Christ was messy but, it was the most beautiful thing.

Red the color of Christmas. Red the color of redemption. Red the color of love. Red the color of beauty.