Give the Gift with Love
There’s so much I want to say and I will probably miss something, but I know I’m going to get my point across. Well, what prompted me to post this tonight was I was just wrapping presents for loved ones for this Christmas season and I began to think a lot about why Christmas is such a huge holiday in our year. But what prompted the idea for the post occurred last week, it was something that happens to most likely thousands of people every year: what am I going to get people for Christmas?! Well, I was talking to my mom and she was getting very stressed out because she didn’t feel like she knew what gifts to give people and all of that stuff, you know the drill, you’ve probably been in the same situation as my mom was, just not knowing what to buy for those special people in your life. But I have to ask myself, what have we done to this holiday, it has to be the most materialistic time of the year, and it’s the perfect match for our materialistic culture. I can say that because I’m just as bad as the next guy when it comes to stuff like that. But when I was talking to my mom over MSN and she was stressing so much, something struck me. It hit me that there is too much emphasis given to gift giving. The Christmas holiday has been morphed into a time with people absolutely blinded by material things and with the feeling that they have to get someone something, instead the want or desire to give someone something for a much more pure reason: love. Giving out of love. I often have to force myself to look deeper into just the word Christmas. What does it say? CHRISTmas. I have no idea if I’m just making this up, I most likely am not, I’m sure I’ve heard it before somewhere, but this has become my belief of one of the traditions of Christmas. Gift giving is something that goes along with Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Christ, but gift giving has become Christmas.
I remember when I was talking to my mom another time even earlier this Christmas season, I mentioned something about getting them something and my mom said that she and dad did not want me to get them anything. I can understand their reasoning, I am a college student, not so wealthy either, but that doesn’t matter to me. But the one thing I remember most about that though it what my mom said next, she said not only that I should not get them anything, but then she said that my love is enough. And she’s right, it would be enough yes. But now I see a gift as more than just something to give, rather it is a token of my appreciation of the recipient, my love for them. Later when I was trying to calm my mom of her worries of finding the “perfect gift,” it hit me. Christ was given to us. God, out of His mercy and boundless love, GAVE Jesus to us. Now that’s a Christmas gift, eternal life. Luke chapter 2 tells us the Christmas story, the birth account, but I can think of another Christmas verse, and it’s so well known too, John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His One and only Son, so that whoever so shall believe in Him, will not perish but have eternal life. So this Christmas season, give in love, but give in Christ.
I would like to leave on here some things to think about. I can remember from my confirmation days something my Pastor showed us right around Christmas season. Perhaps you’ve seen in places, mostly likely in your church, the letters XP. They are put in several different ways, but look for the letters together Xp, then remember this: they stand for Christ. If I remember right they are the first 2 letters in, I think, the Greek word for Christ. But what my Pastor told us to do was to no longer abbreviate the word Christmas like so many people do, “Xmas.” My Pastor would say that’s like crossing out Christ, or taking Christ out, but instead he told us to write “Xpmas” if we wanted to abbreviate the word. So try using that next time you want to shorten the word, or when you’re packing up your decorations after this season, it’s still abbreviating but it’s keeping Christ in Christmas.
There’s so much I want to be able to say but I’ve probably taken up too much of your time the way it is. But I just want to leave you with some thoughts. These first 2 I took from a sermon by a Pastor at St. John’s in Seward, NE. The pastor said that it is not what we know or what we do this Christmas season, it is who we know, and he also said to not let all the hype of Christmas make you miss out on what it’s really about, or who it’s about. Also, I was listening to a Christian radio station on my way home from college today and they have this thing going on where they are asking you to say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays, which is “politically correct,” this season. So, finally, don’t take Christ out of Christmas, keep Christ in Christmas.
In Christ,
Adam
I remember when I was talking to my mom another time even earlier this Christmas season, I mentioned something about getting them something and my mom said that she and dad did not want me to get them anything. I can understand their reasoning, I am a college student, not so wealthy either, but that doesn’t matter to me. But the one thing I remember most about that though it what my mom said next, she said not only that I should not get them anything, but then she said that my love is enough. And she’s right, it would be enough yes. But now I see a gift as more than just something to give, rather it is a token of my appreciation of the recipient, my love for them. Later when I was trying to calm my mom of her worries of finding the “perfect gift,” it hit me. Christ was given to us. God, out of His mercy and boundless love, GAVE Jesus to us. Now that’s a Christmas gift, eternal life. Luke chapter 2 tells us the Christmas story, the birth account, but I can think of another Christmas verse, and it’s so well known too, John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His One and only Son, so that whoever so shall believe in Him, will not perish but have eternal life. So this Christmas season, give in love, but give in Christ.
I would like to leave on here some things to think about. I can remember from my confirmation days something my Pastor showed us right around Christmas season. Perhaps you’ve seen in places, mostly likely in your church, the letters XP. They are put in several different ways, but look for the letters together Xp, then remember this: they stand for Christ. If I remember right they are the first 2 letters in, I think, the Greek word for Christ. But what my Pastor told us to do was to no longer abbreviate the word Christmas like so many people do, “Xmas.” My Pastor would say that’s like crossing out Christ, or taking Christ out, but instead he told us to write “Xpmas” if we wanted to abbreviate the word. So try using that next time you want to shorten the word, or when you’re packing up your decorations after this season, it’s still abbreviating but it’s keeping Christ in Christmas.
There’s so much I want to be able to say but I’ve probably taken up too much of your time the way it is. But I just want to leave you with some thoughts. These first 2 I took from a sermon by a Pastor at St. John’s in Seward, NE. The pastor said that it is not what we know or what we do this Christmas season, it is who we know, and he also said to not let all the hype of Christmas make you miss out on what it’s really about, or who it’s about. Also, I was listening to a Christian radio station on my way home from college today and they have this thing going on where they are asking you to say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays, which is “politically correct,” this season. So, finally, don’t take Christ out of Christmas, keep Christ in Christmas.
In Christ,
Adam
posted by Adam | 6:13 PM
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