Hurry! Today only: Christmas sale ends tonight!

"Well, what are they selling, man?"

"Christmas! You can line up next to the 'Star Wars' fans camped out on the sidewalk."

"Well yeah, Christmas … but what's on sale?"

"Christmas. It's a one-time, special offer, never to be repeated, ever again."

It is perhaps understandable that the world would confuse gift-buying and gift-giving with Christmas. The two, however, are distinctly different. Gift buying and giving require a careful ledger be kept, if only in our heads. No one wants to be caught in an obligation that lasts the whole next year.

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"Oh, no! Gloria gave me a Christmas gift, and I didn't give her anything! Now she's going to ask me to help her move at the end of January!"

"I gave Fred a digital tire gauge for that fancy new car he bought. He never even sent me a card."

Most of us think of Christmas as something that comes around every year. Love it or hate it, come Thanksgiving, it's all you're going to hear about until after the unsuitable gift returns are accomplished at stores in early January (or an Amazon drone comes down your chimney late some evening with your replacement gift tucked under its wing).

Christmas, however, was never designed to be an annual event that the whole world would stop and celebrate once every year – forever. It was, as biblical scholars refer to these things, a parenthesis in history. (And as anyone who writes knows, an opening parenthesis must always be followed by a closing parenthesis.) Just like that.

The previously unforeseen period of time between God's opening parenthesis with the birth of Jesus and the required closing one is called the church age, or the age of grace. It was never referenced in the Bible. It was, in every sense for all of us, then and now, a surprise gift. One that forever demonstrated God's love for his sons and daughters.

Yet as weary shoppers know, sales come and sales go. Special offers are opened – and ended – sometimes without notice at the checkout counter. Have you ever thought of Christmas as a special, one-time, never-to-be-repeated offer that ends tonight? It's become a dangerous world out there. Perhaps you should. Both Christmas – and our daily lives – are subject to termination without notice. It's all in the shrink-wrap agreement you were enclosed in at your birth into this world. Remember the folks in Paris and San Bernardino? They certainly didn't expect last year's Christmas to be their last ever. But it was.

In a very real sense, God doesn't so much insert the closing parenthesis on Christmas (and the age of grace) as we do. Many of us have forgotten that we are God's created beings, made in His image and living in the midst of His creation, which encompasses the entire universe – both seen and unseen.

God has already demonstrated that His love is without limits when he let his son Jesus go to the cross in our stead, because nothing else could break Satan's claim to ownership of humanity. Satan's promise to us was simple. By following him, humanity would become "like God" in that we would know good from evil. How has living in that world been working out for you lately?

Would you like to hang around for the grand finale? God's created beings have seen fit to assume the Creator's role in the universe through technology. We think we're catching up to God. We now have the ability to modify life's genetic code going forward – forever. Masters of the universe, right?

When God types the closing parenthesis on human pride and arrogance, and the Christmas sale ends for all of time, the universe will take notice. Those who know Jesus Christ as God will be transformed and gathered to their destiny with Him. Those who think they have become god will usher in a satanic-crafted horror that will never, ever be exceeded again, throughout eternity. Quite an accomplishment, don't you think? Roll those credits, baby!

Maybe there will be another year that Christmas is on sale for you. Or maybe Paris or San Bernardino or being run down by a car on the sidewalk or stabbed in the shopping mall will deprive you of that expected Christmas. Or maybe, just maybe, this is the last time Christmas is ever to be offered again to anyone at any price.

You can find the rest of the story here.

Media wishing to interview Craige McMillan, please contact [email protected].