I tell them – Christmas isn’t all about the gifts…
I know, how they glitter….how they catch the eye.
It comes the same every year.
Christmas — and the anticipation of gifts: the giving, and the getting.
Us all – young and old…all desiring for what glamorous Christmas promises.
But apparently when the Saviour was born, there were no ticker tapes, no bows nor balloons.
No parades announcing his kingly arrival, or celebratory calls heralding His great coming.
There were only the handful of humble shepherds, and the hustle and bustle of the little town of Bethlehem. The Bible says it plain and clear: “there were no more inns…” – not even for a woman ready to labour.
This woman…hunched at the back of a stable, in the agony of childbirth, in the pain of seeing a promise conceived in faith coming to fruition.
And then there’s us – and our mad rush of buying, of spending…of holiday frenzying.
How on earth do we miss the real deal and forget the reason for this season?
Why do we allow ourselves to stretch so thin, to run so busy, to get so stressed out, to lose our peace, our cool, our love – all in the name of Christmas? And we forget –how we forget, the Christ in the Christmas.
The toys, the trinkets, the tinsels – they promise satisfaction, a level of enjoyment, a degree of happiness – but they don’t, can’t and won’t last long.
When the last present has been ripped open, and each kids carries bags of presents home – I kid you not: “What else?”, “What’s more for me?” , they’d ask. Even their young soul is still famished for more, because they are hungering for the eternal.
So I tell them again – Christmas isn’t about the gifts. It is about The Gift.
The One Gift.
It’s about Jesus…and how this is a Gift that keeps giving.
It is a gift that keeps us celebrating All.Year.Long.
It is a gift that forever unwraps – because unwrapping this Gift unwraps us into a life of hope, of peace, of joy.
This — and no other — is the promise that fulfils our deep yearning, our inward hungering.
When we pause and embrace Him as our Gift, we are brought into triumph that trumps any tragedy and peace that eases away all pain. We find healing that salves every hurt, soothes every heartaches, fills every hunger.
This Gift of a Saviour.
Our Creator becoming one created, the Maker of Space occupying our earthly c0ntains, the Eternal shaped as an embryo.
“Immanuel” – God.With.Us.
The gift of God being with us in every single moment.
And I tell them: how there’s another miracle of Christmas.
God – making Himself real through us.
The Gift of Christ making us a gift unto others.
So that we remember why we are giving gifts.
So that we can really prepare our hearts as we bow-wrap our gifts.
Knowing that we can only give because we have been given. Realising that we get gifts not for our mere consumption, but for our thanksgiving, and that we give gifts not due to our obligation, but to increase our compassion, foster our connection.
That it truly becomes a joy Christ is at the centre – He the purpose, the motive, the reason for and in and behind Christmas.