There is a growing love inside of me for God. As we get closer to the holiday season, I find myself falling more and more in love with our Savior. Let me first explain how this season affects me personally, and then I will give an idea on what has been in my heart lately.
First and foremost, this is the most wonderful season of all. I have really two reasons for that. The first, I will get to second. The second reason is because of how the season affects my wife. My wife LOVES Christmas. It has not taken me that long to realize why she loves it so much. This is the time that her generosity is more than just noticed, it’s accepted. My wife is the most generous person I have ever known. She would not withhold anything if it were necessary. I have seen her hand over money, shoes, even the clothing off of her back if she were only asked. I have seen her give coats, shirts, sweaters…etc. She loves to give. She also loves to give at Christmas. She loves the fact that she can bless people and give them things they may not get for themselves. I think the most exciting part for my wife, though, is the fact that she gets to give a personal gift. It is not just some random gift or wad of cash. It has a purpose behind it. Her usual generosity gets heightened around this time of the year, and though it looks foolish to others, I would rather be broke and watch her do what she does best than to have all the money in the world. I love to watch her give gifts that have meaning. They have a certain kind of weight to them; because they are personal. They are from her, to that individual receiving the gift.
This brings me to my first reason for loving this season. I am getting ready to do a talk to my youth group about what Christmas is all about. If you know a lot about it, you might be asking why this is such a big season to Christians. Christmas was not necessarily a religious holiday. Christmas is a pagan holiday. Without getting into too many details about it, I think that Christians celebrate the holiday most because there was a point in time in history where God made things personal. He gave a gift. History tells us that gift was given sometime in September, and not actually in December, but it matters not. There was a gift that was given. This gift was given simply because it was something that we needed that only God could provide. I think the thing I like most about this gift is that it was a time in history where God made things extremely personal.
So here we are, 2000 years later, and we are still talking about the day in history where God sent His son to be born. The exact date does not matter, but I cannot help but sit back at this time of the year and be extremely thankful and humbled that the best gift the world was ever given at this time of the year was one from God. God sent His son and forever, Christmas is not only special…
it is personal.
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Food for thought: Why is it we have a hard time believing in a God that would want to bless us? Why do we have a hard time believing that He would bless us even if we do not deserve it?
leadershape 