God promises such a place. It is called heaven.

However, it cannot be earned or deserved. This is a difficult concept for us.

Some think we can earn a place in heaven by doing good works or, at the very least, by not doing anything too bad. Some think it is impossible to be good enough for heaven so why even bother trying?

The truth is, the Bible says, man is a sinner and cannot save himself.

It is true, then, that it is impossible to be good enough for heaven, but it is quite wrong to take the attitude of “why bother?”

God is merciful and does not want to punish us by banning us from our dream utopia. In fact, He put the dream there in the first place.

However, God is also just and He must punish our sin against Him. Otherwise He would be unrighteous and going against His very nature.

For this reason God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, the Infinite God-Man. Jesus, whose birth we celebrate during this season, died on the cross, paying that very heavy price to satisfy God’s justice.

This may be why we have this huge struggle in our time about whether to keep ‘Merry Christmas”. Retailers and consumers (read, we) want to keep the traditions of Christmas but we prefer to take “Christ” out of Christmas. We want Jesus to stay as a baby in a manger. That has sentimental value and is a good reason for celebrating.

Providentially there is more to the story of Christmas: Jesus came to earth just to be our Saviour. Jesus came to save sinners!

After His burial He arose again on the third day and has purchased a place in heaven for us.

We should do our good works, not to earn or deserve heaven, but to show our true thankfulness to Him and to show that He truly is Lord of our life.

This faith in Jesus is not mere head knowledge nor is it a temporal faith. It is not just a fanciful way of relating to our world as we found it after our physical birth (we had no idea what we were in for, did we?), but it is a sincere trusting in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation.

In Him we have our utopian dream fulfilled.

An old hymn expresses it well:
Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not see
How thy desires e’er have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Embrace Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas, everyone!