With Gifts we Celebrate

Soon you will gather with family and friends to share gifts. Maybe you already have opened one, that's always a focus before Christmas - "let's open one now, the rest later." Gifts around the tree is the defining picture for most people who gather for Christmas to celebrate together. It is a joyous time for many, but it can be a stressful time for some. Family relations are sometimes strained. There's always the remembering of those who have died and are no longer with us. Some are far away and cannot join in with the rest. BUT, with gifts we celebrate!!



Celebration makes us feel good. Celebration fills our body with emotion. All kinds of emotion. BUT, what is everyone celebrating? We tell the children, "Christmas is about giving!" So are we celebrating GIVING? 

GIVING is a good thing. We all should want to give. There are many stories around Christmas of how much sacrifice some people make to give a gift to someone they love. There are stories of how a focus on giving has interrupted the business of life and taken the attention off of one's self-centeredness. We see and hear stories of people who have had their joy in life restored because they helped someone else in a difficult time. Christmas gifts around the tree certainly turn our attention toward giving, BUT is that what we are celebrating with our gifts at Christmas.

I think not. The Christmas story from John has always been my favorite.

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." 

Yes, God gave to us a gift we can and should celebrate. BUT, a gift is not complete without it being received. While God gave Himself to us, freely and as a gift, gifts must be received. We must take hold and behold the gift for it to be ours.  

We hold inside ourselves so much anger, guilt, hopelessness, cynicism, disappointment, and pride. Ironically, often these feelings are what motivate our own giving. That's nothing to celebrate, its our bondage. BUT, beholding inside ourselves "the only begotten of the Father," that's something to celebrate.

Let's take a moment this Christmas and celebrate the gifts we receive. Let's make a point to the children (and the adults for that matter) that the joy in the gift someone has for us comes as we receive it. Receiving makes us vulnerable, we are not in control. Grace places us in disequilibrium, where the balance of power is with the giver. We feel we don't deserve the gift, and we don't. Christmas is a time to celebrate "I don't deserve it" by freely receiving the gift freely given. Take hold of His gift, no hesitation. What we receive and behold in the gift of Grace is the truth that sets us free.

Christmas is our celebration that "unto us a child is born" - given to us is all the privileges and provisions of the Heavenlies. Christmas is a celebration of joyfully receiving THE GIFT freely given.

After all, we have nothing to give until we have received His. Something to ponder ....