(This is day six of the Rediscovering the Christmas Season Advent Study that can be found here. You don’t have to start at the beginning. In fact, you can jump in any time or go in any order. Care to join?)
Read Acts 20:35 and I John 4:10.
Read the verses and go Christmas shopping for someone who is not in your family, perhaps a hospital patient, your mail carrier, or a foster child.
What is the real point of giving a gift? How is Jesus the best gift you’ve ever received? Maybe the reason I give gifts is selfish, I don’t know, but I like to see someone’s face light up. It’s fun. It would be so easy to spoil my daughter and my husband, because they both have the most amazing reaction to gifts. As for the second part of the question, I’m not sure if I ever think of Jesus Himself as a gift, but I love sitting here thinking in that way. He has totally changed my life. I know who I used to be. I know the road I was on. I know how great it felt driving down the road today and just talking to Him and being honest with Him. Without Him, I wouldn’t be me. I’d be a royal mess. Just thinking about it gives me the shivers. I wonder if in heaven He’ll show me what life would have been like without Him. I don’t think I’d want to see it, even with Him standing right beside me. Trust me… I know what I’m capable of and what I’d be doing without Him. It sure ain’t pretty.
How generous are you with your time, treasures, and talents? Do you live as if it’s more blessed to give than receive? How can you live this out more fully this Christmas season? Can we just say my toes hurt and leave it at that?
Write about a time you blessed someone with extreme generosity or someone blessed you with extreme generosity. Pray and ask God to help you become more generous by better understanding His gift of love to us. I have this friend, and, trust me… Her life makes mine look like all I do is eat bon bons all day. To say she’s got a lot going on would be an understatement. Yet… every year for Christmas, she sends me a card. And in that card she writes, “My gift to you is to pray for you every day in the coming year.” And she does. Every. Single. Day. And not just one of those, “God, please bless my friend Jodie, amen” kind of prayers. She hits her knees in serious prayer for me. 365 days. Full schedule or not. That floors me and humbles me. And makes me want to be a so much better person than I am.
-JB
Jen says
Wow… What an amazing gift to give someone!
Dawn Lucowitz says
I actually did the first part of the challenge today because I was home and had some time. Granted, I went shopping in my closet of Scentsy, but it still totally counts. I decided I wanted to give a gift to the crossing guard at the elementary school across the street from my house. I have never met her, but I imagine she must have a heart for God. She seems to do her job with such joy and makes me smile every time I drive by. I went looking for her before her shift started, but didn’t see her. The hatchback to her car was open, so I left an angel scentsy plug in with my favorite scent and a Christmas card that explained how she completely brightens my day and reminds me of an angel to those kids every day. I did leave my card in the card in case she had questions about the scentsy because I don’t know if she had ever seen it, my card also has my picture on it. Anyway, I was at youth group tonight and I got the most wonderful phone call from the crossing guard. She absolutely loved it and thought it was wonderful. My heart was happier than it has been in a long long time.
1. Part of giving a gift is letting someone know you are thinking about them, that you care about them and that they matter. I also think that God knew how happy our hearts would be by giving and showing love to others. Thinking about how this very small gift meant to both myself and the crossing guard, I really can’t even put into thoughts Jesus being the greatest most perfect gift of all time! I mean, the gifts we give are small tokens or acts of caring and service, yet Jesus gave us the gift of eternal life! That is something that makes my head explode andi can’t put it into words at all.
2. I think my toes may hurt more than Jodie’s! I am horrible at sharing my time. I have a ton of time and I don’t make the most of it at all. I could easily do so much more and still not be taxing my time in the least. I am going to really focus on this over the rest of this Christmas season and see if I can find something to help with or volunteer with starting the new year on a regular basis. Maybe working at a food pantry weekly or volunteer at a nursing home or something like that on a regular basis.
3. I love that gift that Jodie’s friend gives her of 365 day of solid real prayer. I can absolutely do that for a friend, and maybe even add someone like the crossing guard that I don’t even know. As for being a part of awesome blessings….I have been a part of the giving and receiving end of this a lot in the military community. It is amazing to see the way woman (and some men, but mostly women) come together and bless and take care of each other during deployments. I know women who have been called on in the middle of the night to take care of children while moms had to take other kids to the hospital, or is going to the hospital themselves for illness or to give birth. I know of women who have traveled tremendous distances to be present for grieving spouses. I have seen ladies go to welcome home ceremonies at the most awful hours to take pictures and help make homecomings smoother.