Looking back to when I was growing up, there wasn’t much that compared to Christmastime. And it wasn’t just Christmas Day, it was the whole season leading up to Christmas that included baking cookies with my mom, seeing my extended family, parties at school, and, of course, the presents. I always loved giving gifts as much as getting them. But as much as I loved Christmas as a kid, I love the opportunity to now share all this with my daughter. As she gets older, it only gets better, and I find myself far more excited now than I ever was as a kid.
I think we all have that one Christmas present that sticks out in our minds. For my husband, it was the year his parents surprised him with a puppy under the tree. For me, it was opening up The Perfect Pancake, a griddle on an infomercial that was supposed to make the perfect pancake. (It, in fact, did not make the perfect pancake!) At the time, I couldn’t have imagined receiving a better gift, but it goes down in our family as one of the most exciting-turned-disappointing presents.
There is a Christmas morning scenario that’s presented every year of parents sitting together watching their children open their gifts. The mother smiles as the children react to each present, while the dad, along with the kids, is seeing all of the gifts for the first time. It’s a joke aimed at dads, leading everyone to believe that the mom has done all the work of reading the wish lists, purchasing the items, and wrapping each one. Please dads, I am not coming after you, but I can attest that in my family, this was the truth. My dad wanted to see each of the presents as we opened them because he didn’t know what we had asked for. Taking care of the presents was always Mom’s job. One year as teenagers, he specifically got my sister and me gifts…with help from Mom, but the effort was there!
If giving good gifts is a challenge for some dads, it certainly isn’t the case for our Heavenly Father. Matthew 7:11 says, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” It’s clear God gives good gifts. There are the gifts of the Spirit, like wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:7-10). And yet there are still so many more gifts!
And since we are in the Christmas season, of course, there is the ultimate gift of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) There you have it. Jesus was a gift given to everyone in His time, our time, and those in between. But we weren’t called to remember His birth, we were told to remember His death. Easter should be the most holy time for Christians, but undoubtedly Christmas is the most popular. And I’m not saying we shouldn’t remember and celebrate His birth, because without His birth, we would have never had a chance at our salvation! What I am saying is that it’s very easy to overlook the gift of Christ’s birth in this season that we fill with “doing.” Parties, baking, cooking, traveling, gift buying, light shows, movies, family, the list goes on and on. And none of it is bad, but we do lose ourselves in doing things for Christmas instead of considering what it’s truly about.
Jesus’ sacrifice was setting aside His glory in heaven to take on the mantle of all human sin, to be born in stable, and as a man, to be rejected, hated, beaten, and killed. But He did it all to save us, so that during the celebration of His birth, we can celebrate our rebirth into eternal life with Jesus! Jesus’ birth is the gift that keeps giving. It doesn’t have an expiration date and it doesn’t have a name tag on it to only be given to some and not others. He wants everyone to take hold of His marvelous gift. Christ left His glory in heaven and became poor for our sake, so that we, who were born poor and into sin, can become rich in His everlasting love.
Thank you, Jesus, for Your birth, Your life, and Your sacrifice, resurrection, and imminent return. May this Christmas season be one of celebrating You above all and Your glorious gift that continues to save.
God Bless
Merry Christmas
Becca Drumheller
