The Gift

Today Mary and Joseph make their way closer and closer to Bethlehem. To that small and insignificant place. To a manger where a very significant and majestic birth will take place. Where God enters mankind. The timeless enters time. Our Lord, who is love, begins the greatest act of love ever as the creator reaches down for his creator and walks among them.

Today, 2000 years later we are still in awe of this coming of God into our lives. Even for nonbelievers the excitement reigns over the day inspiring even the most secular to be kind and for a moment charity and love to others. And it is rightly so. For the need for the children of God to know they are loved is just as real and desperate as it was then.

So many people walk through life not believing they are loveable and certainly not loved by a God on heaven. Feeling unloved and unloveable is the fundamental building block for most pain and suffering we see as we walk our cities. It is the entry point and basis for how sin reigns in lives and hearts. Once the child is convinced they are not loved evil had free reign and takes over.

The light of Christ, the star of Bethlehem, the rays of hope are shielded from the heart of the one who is convinced their are not worthy of love and are simply not loveable. What a horrific feeling for a child of God, who is love, to not feel loved. For people made in the image of God, the image of love itself, it strips the person of their very essence. A cavernous whole or void is left.

And so they try to feel the void with everything else the world has to offer. And they live in pain and cause pain and suffering around them.

Not knowing the God of Love loves them with a majestic and awesome love and He wants only to wrap his arms around them and hold them close.

Tomorrow is when we celebrate the birth of Christ but instead of giving Christ presents we give each other gifts. Maybe knowing how much God loves us that makes sense for God wishes to give each child of his a gift of love and peace, hope and joy.

And that is why when we give gifts on Christmas we should do so asking, what gift will make them know they are loved.

What gift shows them that God loves them and we love them. What gift fills the ache we all have to some extent that asks if we are loved.

Maybe the best gift is the one God gave. The gift of being there for others. Being present. Entering the day to day life of others and being part of their living, their struggles, their joys and their fears.

This Christmas, parents would do well to give their children presence more than presents.

Spouses can renew the gift of self once more as promised in marriage vows. Completely and without reservations. Selflessly.

Friends can sit with others without agenda or need for gain. Just to visit, to be present to those who sit alone.

As children of God, followers of Christ, our calling is to be Christ for others. Let us enter their world as Christ did and offer the gift of self. And we can do this all year and reach as many who feel unloved as possible.

How much more wonderful next Christmas would be if we all invested time and self intentionally being there for others we meet and who are part of our life…all year long.

Isn’t that what being a disciple is really all about?

More about loving and being present than giving presents.

And no one needs to be taught how to do that. We are children of love. It is in our hearts.

Give the gift of love this Christmas. Love is free and never needs refilling, recharging or replacing.

If we all do this it will be majestic and awesome and will reverberate across the fabric of lives.

From a seemingly small event like a person coming into the life of another with no message or intention but love, hearts will be made new again, a little bit at a time until it grows and grows and is felt beyond that seemingly small and insignificant encounter.

A new birth will take place. In the heart of the giver and in the heart of the receiver.

And in the end, and in the beginning, that is what Christmas is all about. God, who is love, entering the lives and hearts of his beloved children to say I love you.