Every time this time of year comes around, I get excited because I know I will be getting to see family and be all together with every one. I love spending time together with the cousins and playing games, staying up late, and telling stories. But yet so many times I just feel like something missing, like I don’t have it all together. Yeah the presents, food, and family are all great, but something just seems wrong.
I was thinking the other day about what Christmas means to us as Americans. How many of you like getting things? Like presents? Especially this time of year with Christmas coming up and everything. You all have probably turned in your Christmas lists. “Here mommy and daddy I want this, this and this”. I turned mine in too. And you all have one present that you have to have or else Christmas just won’t be right.
It seems that giving gifts is what we are consumed by this time of year. So what’s the whole purpose behind giving gifts to people? I mean yeah, it is because we want stuff, but when it all comes down to it, what do we do with the stuff we get? Do we remember who gave it to us a year later?
Is Christmas all about exchanging x-boxes, iPods, and ugly sweaters you know you will never wear?
NO, I don’t believe that that’s what it is all about. I think that Christmas needs to be about giving Jesus gifts.
In Philippians 2:5-8 it says, 5“Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ: 6 who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to
death—even death on a cross!”
This tells us that Jesus made himself nothing, became a servant in human likeness and humbled himself to serve others.
Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’ birth. It’s about God’s passion to change the earth and bless the world. Jesus was born and came to give and receive joy. HE GAVE UP COMFORT, CONVIENECE, SAFTEY, and SECURITY to come live among us. We thrive on these four things! I don’t think many of us would be willing to give up our nice warm beds and everything we have to go live on the streets or in another country just because, but Jesus did that. In those verses, he entered into the mess, muck, darkness, and filth they we had created. Jesus came and lived like us and with us! I find that amazing. Jesus wanted to be able to RELATE to us.
I believe that that’s what we need to be celebrating and giving as our gifts. RELATIONAL GIFTS. Is your stuff working for you? I think it satisfies us for the time but we always want something better. Maybe getting your own way isn’t what makes/brings us happiness. In Acts 20:35, Jesus says “it is more blessed to give than to receive”.
I think that God by his very nature is a giver. I mean he gave us life, his only son, and everything on earth. Genesis 1:26 says that we were created in God’s image. So if God is a giver and we are created in his image, then we by nature should be givers and not receivers. By givers, I don’t think that we need to be giving all this fancy stuff, but we need to be building relationship and showing others that we really care. The season is about Jesus, so why not give Him gifts? But how do we do that? Like I mentioned before, Philippians tells us that he entered into our world and became like us to live with us. The mess and darkness that we have created from our sin is what Jesus can to experience so he could relate to us. I think that we give Jesus gifts by getting into the mess of what others are going through. This is what Jesus did. In Matthew 25, Jesus says that whatever you do to the least of these [poor, hungry, thirsty, or sick] you have done unto me. We experience God in the face of the vulnerable, voiceless, abused, and broken! By being with people who are in this state, we give Jesus gifts because we are doing it as if Jesus was that person in need. Instead of worrying about us this year, I think that we need to hear what God is trying to tell us, and consider the needs of others more significant than your own.
Even if it is sitting down and listening to ones of your friends talk, playing with your little sister or brother, or having real family time, we all can give relational gifts this year instead of spending money on gifts. You will experience the most joy in the midst of other people. Whether it is through their suffering, loss, happiness, or excitement, you will be blessed by them.
Jesus spent his time with everyone and you didn’t see Jesus going around and handing out physical gifts to every person he came into contact with. Jesus spent his time building relationships with people, getting to know them, and showing them that he cared.
If you want to experience life, get in the dirt! We need to experience Christmas the way God wants us to and not the way we want to! It’s not all about the gifts, its about your time and where your heart truly is.
