The Christmas season! Lights! Sights! Traditions! Gifts! The Reason for the Season!
For many the Christmas season is the peak of all that is Warm and Wonderful, Light and Bright ~ for an endless number of reasons! For many the Christmas season is completely opposite of all that ~ for an endless number of reasons, which grow and multiply in our society in these days…
Wherever we are in the range of emotions brought on by this season, Christmas is the time of year that marks the coming of the very Son of God to earth as a Babe. There are other celebrations, old and new, which occur at this point of the winter, all of which are marked by the giving of gifts. Why? Why gifts?
Essentially, it comes down to love, doesn’t it? We all need to love and to be loved. We give gifts to reach out and touch and bless another: to know we have given someone a mark of our care, our love ~ in whatever varying degree of love that might be for that relationship, be it great or small. We give to know we have made another happy, to uplift them. We look to receive gifts for the same reasons ~ to receive a mark of care, love and/or blessing, and to be uplifted.
God has given us all a gift, and many believe our giving at this time and season is a reflection of that gift. What is His gift, and why?
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16-17)
God gave us Himself.
Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30) So God, in sending this Babe to a young virgin girl, gave us His very self. And Who is He? He said of Himself He is the I AM. “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.‘” (Exodus 3:14) And later, knowing we need help in understanding, He tells us through His disciple John, “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) What IS love?
“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…” and “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
Jesus laid down His life for us and because He did, and rose again from laying down His life, He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6) Because we are what God loves and treasures, He gave Himself to us and for us so we can be restored to Him, which is Life.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
If you haven’t yet, will you give His favorite gift to God? Will you believe Him and receive His gift ~ love and life?
All Scripture (Bible verses) are from the NASB (New American Standard Bible)
3 comments for “The Gift is Love, and Life”