Many people think you only get good gifts from God if you are good. But that’s confusing God with Santa Claus! With Santa we say, we say, “You better watch out, you better not cry . . . Santa Claus is comin’ to town.”

But that’s not how God works. He doesn’t keep a naughty list and a nice list when it comes to his blessings. The Bible says in Matthew 5:45, “[God] makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And he sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong” (CEV).

God doesn’t play favorites with his grace and his goodness. God offers his grace to everyone—even to people who don’t believe he exists. Whether or not you follow him, God gives you his grace every moment of your life. You wouldn’t even draw your next breath if it weren’t for the grace of God. As Psalm 145:9 says, “The LORD is good to everyone” (NLT).

This is very different from what the world teaches. The world teaches that you get what you deserve in life. Hindus call it karma. It’s the belief that there is a cause and effect for everything you do. Good things happen to you because of the good things you’ve done in the past, and bad things happen to you because of the bad things you’ve done in the past.

But God operates by grace, not karma. If you got what you deserved, then you wouldn’t even be here on Earth. If you got what you deserved, then you would have nothing. Did you deserve to be born? Do you deserve to be able to see colors and taste flavors? Do you deserve forgiveness? No. Those are gifts of God.

In Luke 2:10, an angel says to the shepherds, “Don’t be afraid! . . . I bring you the most joyful news ever announced, and it is for everyone!” (TLB).

This is the first public announcement of Jesus’ birth. Who is this announcement for? Everybody. That means people from every race, every religion, every economic status, and every culture around the world. When the angel announced the Good News at Christmas, there were no restrictions or qualifiers or limits. There were no conditions on who got to hear and respond to the Good News. That’s true today too.

Christmas is for all people—because God is good to all people.

By Rick Warren