|
CHRISTMAS
This morning, while I’m baking cookies, making
more cookie dough, and baking banana bread, it occurred to me. Maybe “occurred”
is not the right word. I believe “revealed” is the right one. I’m thinking
about giving this year, how much need there is, and how much we’ve already
given. I was wondering if maybe God wanted us to give more, somewhere else.
But, no, that was not it. The revelation was this…this season, the most
wonderful time of the year is the biggest giving season of the year. We give to
each other and to strangers who have needs, wanting to bless them, to help
them. Well, this season is not necessarily about giving, but about receiving. I
know, sounds kind of backwards, but hear me out. A little over 2000 years ago,
God gave. He gave, in the form of a little baby, the answer to everything we
have to deal with. The answer to hunger, to poverty, to violence, to sin and
death. The little baby we celebrate, Jesus, the gift we are to receive. The
gift of reconciliation and wholeness with our Creator, all wrapped up in
swaddling cloths and lying in a manger, after his mother had traveled a long
time on a donkey. Ouch! This is the time of year we remember that gift, the one
to save us all.
While we are fighting the shopping lines,
the traffic, and often times each other, to get the “perfect” gift for our
loved one, the battle for our souls rages on, in the Heavenlies, where we
cannot see it. Imagine…feel the love and
goodness you feel this time of year, with the giving and blessing of those we
love. It fills our hearts and sometimes brings tears. Now, imagine how God felt
when He gave mankind His perfect gift, Jesus Christ. It is His love that burns
in our hearts, urging us to give, to meet needs, to share what we have with
those who don’t. We can love only because God loved us first.
There are so many who know of Jesus, but
don’t “know” him, as Savior and Lord. So many know Him and don’t really
understand the meaning of receiving the gift. The gift of reconciliation and
salvation He brings us. That is the gift of Christmas day. The gift God longs
for us to receive, to guarantee our eternity with Him. It was on this day that
God showed us that He loves the whole world so much that He sent His only Son,
so that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. Those
of us who know Jesus as Lord and Savior reach out and give, with the heart of
God beating for all. Through our giving, during this most wonderful time of the
year, we show the love of Christ, who through His birth, started on the road to
the day when He would give it all, for us. Hopefully through our giving and reaching
out, hearts will be softened, needs met and eyes and hearts opened to the real
gift and to receiving it.
|
