✝️ The One Gift Men Forget To Open At Christmas

Good morning, my brothers! Have you ever considered that the birth of Jesus is one of the most profound examples of God’s grace? I honestly hadn’t…or at least not recently. I think we’ll experience even greater joy and freedom this Christmas season as we frame it through the lens of God’s grace as we read this week’s article. Let’s go!

This week: 5-minute, 9-second read

Grace
How God’s Grace Shows Up in a Manger

Every Friday morning at 6:30, a small room in our church comes alive with eight men and eight cups of coffee. We gather around our Bibles, still half asleep. Hungry for truth. Hungry for change. Hungry for brotherhood. When we started in September, most of us did not know each other well. I had no idea what God would do.

The group is diverse. 26-71 years old. Young professionals, retirees, fathers, husbands, leaders, and men trying to figure out life. But from the beginning, one thing became clear. Every one of us was craving fraternity. Not surface-level acquaintance. The real thing. Brotherhood that tells the truth, confesses the mess, and doesn’t flinch when life presses hard.

Yesterday morning, one of our guys broke down. He is in his forties. Uber-successful. Incredible athlete. Married to a wonderful woman. He has the kind of résumé that makes most men nod in admiration.

But through tears, he said something to the two youngest guys in our group that stopped the room.

He said, “Do not let anyone tell you that you don’t measure up. That you are not enough. God says you do measure up. God says you are enough.”

His voice trembled, not because he was unsure, but because he was speaking from his own deep wound. A few weeks earlier, he had shared that growing up, his dad had told him constantly that he wasn’t enough. That he had to work harder, perform better, be stronger, be more.

And even though decades have passed, that voice still echoes in him. It has shaped the way he sees himself. It has fueled him. It has left him believing he must prove himself again and again. To God. To others. Even to himself.

It hit me yesterday. He does not completely understand God’s grace. Not fully. And if I am honest, many days I am right there with him.

God’s Grace Personified

We know the word grace. We sing about it. But most of us do not actually live as men who believe we have nothing left to prove because Christ has proven everything on our behalf.

Last night, my wife and I finished decorating the Christmas tree. To be fair, she decorated. I mostly handed her ornaments. But when the lights were on, and the room grew still, I found myself thinking again about grace.

And brother, that is when it freshly hit me.

Christmas is the moment when God’s grace put on skin. Christmas is grace made visible. Tangible. Touchable.

If you want to understand grace, look at the manger.

The birth of Jesus is not sentimental or soft. It is the most disruptive, radical expression of love the world has ever seen. And it speaks directly to men like us. Men who feel the pressure to perform. Men who carry secret wounds from fathers who never affirmed us. Men who are juggling exhaustion, hope, longing, and fear. Men who want to be faithful but are pulled in a dozen directions every day.

Christmas looks you in the eye and says, “You do not have to climb your way to God. He has come down to you.”

Grace means God came down to us

So much of a man’s life involves climbing. Climb the ladder. Climb out of failure. Climb toward success. Climb toward respect. Climb toward worthiness.

I know those climbs well. I know what it feels like to chase achievement and approval and spiritual accomplishment as if God is waiting for me at the top, demanding I earn His attention.

But Christmas tells a different story. It says the gospel does not begin with people trying to reach God. It begins with God coming to us.

Think about that. The God who created galaxies stepped into a womb. The God who thundered on Mount Sinai cried in a manger.

He did not wait for the world to improve. He did not wait for anyone to clean up. He did not wait for anyone to get strong enough or holy enough.

He came into the mess. Into the confusion. Into the insecurity. Into the exhaustion. Into the struggle.

When God wanted to save the world, He started with a cradle, not a throne. A baby’s cry, not a royal trumpet.

That is grace. God takes the first step, every time.

Grace chooses the overlooked.

If you or I were writing the script for the arrival of the Messiah, we would not choose Mary, a teenage girl from a tiny town. We would not select Joseph, a blue-collar craftsman with no platform or influence. And we definitely would not choose shepherds, men who smelled like sheep and lived on the fringe of society, as the first invited guests.

But that is what God did.

God delights in choosing the ones the world overlooks. The humble. The unseen. The ones who feel like they do not matter.

Most men carry a quiet fear that they are forgettable. Replaceable. Unseen. We try to hide it by acting strong.

Christmas says God sees you. Not the polished version of you. The real you. The wounded you. The tired you. The striving you.

Grace enters our suffering.

Jesus did not arrive into comfort. He came into chaos. Into poverty. Into a nation under oppression. Into a family surrounded by whispers and scandal. Before He could even walk, a violent ruler sought to kill Him, and His parents fled with Him into a foreign land.

This is not background detail. This is the message.

God does not save us from afar. He steps directly into the pain.

And I have needed that truth many times. When our factory burned to the ground in 2010, I remember the feeling of being gutted. Completely unsure of what the future held. I felt the weight of leading people while grieving my own loss.

What steadied me was not the idea of a God who sits above suffering. What steadied me was the God who entered suffering. The God who knows it intimately. The God who came as a baby into danger and lived a life marked by sorrow and joy and pressure and pain.

Christmas is God’s way of saying, “I am not distant from what hurts you. I have stepped into it with you.”

Grace gives what we could never earn.

The angel told Joseph, “You shall call Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

We did not ask for a Savior. Many of us do not think we need one. But God sent one anyway. Long before we understood our most profound need, God met it.

Christmas is not primarily about sweet songs or warm memories. It is about rescue. It is about a God who saw our helplessness and acted.

Jesus did not come to inspire us. He came to save us. From sin. From shame. From the inner voice that tells you to prove your worth. From the heavy load you try to carry alone. From the cycle of self-salvation, we keep trying to run.

You cannot fix yourself. God has never asked you to try. He sent His Son because you could not climb the mountain. Grace is God saying, “Let me carry you.”

Grace keeps its promises, even when we fail.

The birth of Jesus comes after centuries of Israel’s failure. Rebellion. Wandering. Forgetting God. And yet God kept His promise. Every prophecy found its fulfillment in Christ. Every word God spoke was proven true in Bethlehem.

This is good news for men like us. God’s faithfulness does not depend on our performance. He is not waiting to see if we are consistent enough. His grace does not disappear when we fall short.

Christmas announces that God finishes what He starts.

What does all this mean for us as men?

Christmas is not just a season. It is an invitation.

An invitation to stop striving and start receiving.

An invitation to stop performing and start resting.

An invitation to come to God as you are, not as you think you should be.

An invitation to trust that God has stepped into your story.

An invitation to live as a son who is fully loved.

Brother, grace is not soft. It is strong enough to lift you out of despair. It is tender enough to meet you in weakness. It is powerful enough to transform your entire life.

And it all began in a manger.

This Christmas, do not miss the grace that has come to you. Look at Jesus. Let His birth remind you of a God who comes close, keeps His promises, enters your pain, rescues you completely, and calls you His son.

That is grace. That is Christmas.

And that is the good news that will change your life if you let it.

-Will

As we come to the end of 2025, if the Lord has spoken to you through More The Man, please prayerfully consider making an end-of-the-year, tax-deductible gift to the ministry. You’ll help us reach more men in 2026 who need encouragement, hope, a sense of fraternity, and the truth found in the Bible. Pay It Forward Here.