The answer to why Christmas is merry is simple: on Christmas we see just how much God loves us.

All of us are looking to be loved in an unconditional way. Loneliness is the greatest curse of modern irreligious society. Nothing is permanent and love has been replaced by sex in our post-Jesus culture.

But we are made in the image and likeness of God; a Triune God who is by His very nature social. God is love and being made in His image we need love in order to be who we truly are meant to be.

We were not crafted either by Him or evolution, if you don’t believe in Him, to be hermits on desert islands. Rather, we need the love that can only come from interacting with others.

We need to give and receive love, real love, not sex, lest we wither away like plants placed in a dark and cold room.

But saying “I love you” is risky and fraught with peril in todays' society of disposable relationships where hedonistic selfishness is applauded and self-sacrificing love is disparaged.

As a result, we are all too often inclined to live as though we were islands supposedly strong in our isolation but really slowly turning black and twisted like an unwatered plant.

Christmas reminds us, at least the vast majority of Americans who are Christians, that God so loves each and everyone of us that He left perfect happiness in Heaven to suffer pain and poverty here on Earth.

Further He came down to Earth knowing that in the end we, all of us through our sins, would torture Him to death.

Yet He came.

If 33 years of voluntary sacrifice culminating in a horrible death to help us don’t prove to you that Jesus loves you, then nothing ever will. But even if you deny His love, He will not stop loving you.

We are unconditionally loved by the same God who created everything. He was perfectly happy without us, yet He so loves us so much that He made us. Despite the fact that He knew we’d sin, spit in His face, call Him names, ignore Him, and dis Him repeatedly He made us.

No matter what we do or what we believe -- that means you atheists too -- He loves us. That doesn’t mean that if we reject Him by choosing sin He won’t let us walk away from Him and lose our salvation, but it does mean that no matter what He loves us and will always love us.

Imagine how good you’d feel if some famous person you admire wanted to be your best friend. But who is more famous than God? ...and we know that God wants to be our friend.

Rejoice then in Christmas, when God continued His sojourn through this valley of tears, which had begun nine months before when He was conceived in Mary’s womb, solely out of an infinite love for each and every one of us; not as members of humanity, but as individuals, as His children.

Remember too that God’s love is not confined to Christmas. No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, God always loves you.

Try and keep the truth of the Christmas season with you always,so that you can be merry and full of joy 24/7, 365.

God Bless you one and all and may you all have a healthy, happy, Holy Christmas!

You can read more of tom’s rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious and feel free to follow him on Twitter