Merry Christmas!

Romans 6:23

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

As I was thinking about the holidays, I couldn’t help but ask some friends about what first came to their mind when they thought of Christmas. One said Jesus while the other mentioned gifts, gathering with family … the typical responses that I believe we all have when we think about Christmas. But let me tell you what our children think about. It’s not the tree or tinsel or “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” Not at all because what they think about is the gifts; that which lies underneath the tree.

The concept of “gift giving” has been around likely since time began. One individual taking something that belongs to them, and freely giving it away to another for their benefit is something that has happened repeatedly down through the ages. And it is at Christmastime when this way of thinking becomes more pronounced. At Christmas we don’t have as much of a problem spending money to purchase various items to only give them away versus doing the same at any other time of the year. We even teach and encourage our kids to do the same! Why? Because the answer that we always give is, “That’s what Christmas is all about!”

Let’s explore that thought briefly. If Christmas is all about gift giving where did that first start? It began with the gift that Jesus is for us at Christmas. He came as Immanuel, God with us, to live the life that we couldn’t, to die the death we deserved, to give us the gift of eternal life that none of us were able to achieve on our own. Jesus was, and still is, the perfect gift and we have no problem at Christmastime giving away gifts in remembrance of this gift that He gave us. The problem is that on December 26^th this attitude of ours begins to change and we very soon thereafter move back into the hum drum of life. But Jesus doesn’t. His is the gift that keeps on giving, not only at Christmas, but all year long and this gift that is Christ is not only something we receive, but it’s something that we are supposed to give away all year long as well. So as we teach our children to give let’s remember that God teaches us in His Word that we are also to be givers of the greatest gift that ever was to a world that desperately needs it. And this doesn’t happen only at Christmas!