Holidays
Find someone who needs Christmas love
by Bill Hunt
Christmas love gives someone a reason to believe. Spending wads of money in material giving to meet a felt cultural obligation falls short. That's just a scratch on the surface of the glass. The real meaning is found in the heart.
Take a look at that unspoken citizen in Bethlehem who loaned his humble animal manger to a traveling stranger carrying a young wife in imminent labor.
�Sorry, friend, I don't have a private room in my house; but I own a manger in the side of the hill there. You can use the fresh straw I placed today. My livestock are very tame. It looks like you better hurry.�
Those wise Magi may have been wealthy. Even so, they traveled far by faith through sandy deserts and wastelands following their star to find the Messiah.
�On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh� (Matt. 2:11 NIV).
Astounding generosity, noted Jesus, was displayed by the poor widow who gave two small coins to the temple offering.
"I tell you the truth," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on" (Luke 21:3-4).
There was a sinful woman who anointed, washed, and kissed the feet of Jesus with an expensive alabaster jar of perfume. And she dried his feet with her hair. Jesus spoke to his host, the objecting Pharisee Simon.
Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven�for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little" (Luke 7:44-47).
This Christmas find someone who needs Christmas love!
Jesus told the story of the Samaritan who found a man beaten and robbed by the roadside (after a priest and a Levite sauntered by.) He
poured oil and wine on the victim's bloody wounds and bandaged them. He took the man to an inn and paid for his care with his own money.
"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise" (Luke 10:30-37).
Christmas love is not found in placing barriers, limitations, or restraints on giving.
Christmas love is unlimited love.
�Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient to death--
even death on a cross!� (Phil. 2:5-8 NIV).
Christmas love is self-sacrificing love.
Christianity is not a religion; it's a person. Christmas love gives someone a reason to believe.
Christmas love is the love of Jesus.
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At these time when commercialized Christmas robs us of the true meaning of the season, this reminds us that there is Christmas because "God gave..." and that is the relevant lesson here. Thanks for writing.
Thanks for the reminder. We all need to contemplate Jesus's life on earth and pattern our life on earth after him. Good article.
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