Most people, particularly Christians, look forward
to the month of December and the wonderful atmosphere of giving that comes with
it. The decorated houses inside and out. The giddy feelings and
memories built upon from childhood. You want to give to everyone.
You want to receive from everyone.
Yet most people toss that heavenly feeling aside the moment they examine their bank account. Throw that happiness out the door! Replace it with...worry? If you don't have the money to buy the most luxurious and exciting gifts for every person on your list, depression and worry builds, and you begin to develop feelings of inadequacy. Nobody will understand that I cannot afford a huge and expensive present for them. Embarrassment prevails. My wife knows a woman that worked two full-time jobs to buy presents...uh, okay.
If you feel that way, STOP! Let's look back a little over two thousand years. In Bethlehem we see a carpenter and his wife in a stable. In a manger used to feed cattle is a newborn baby lying in the hay. God almighty himself has brought his son into the world in this lowly setting. The first people to receive a birth announcement are scruffy and at-the-bottom-of-the-economic-totem-pole shepherds tending sheep in the fields. The couple to whom God blessed with his son are not visited by their king that just so happens to be the king of God's chosen people nor the priests of God's Temple. Even worse, the couple will eventually have to flee to another country due a death warrant being issued against God's son by that very king. Add to this the fact that the priests of God's Temple will be responsible for torturing and killing him by driving huge nails through his hands and feet to affix him to a cross where he is mocked by God's chosen people.
That son of God never claimed ownership of any material things. He hadn't any money. He depended on people's kindness to put him up for the night. He associated with the poor and outcasts of society. Yet he was the richest and most powerful person to ever walk upon this earth in human form. God's son proved that one person can change the world and not need a penny nor any other form of material wealth to accomplish that great change for good.
He never hated one person but, instead, loved everyone unconditionally without exception during his entire life upon this earth in which he, the son of God, served us. This son of God, this king of kings, this God in human form said,
Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV)
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you - you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
I have nothing to add to that. Jesus said it all about worry in those lines.
Enjoy this time with joy that God gave us his son to take away our sins. Give joy, praise, gratefulness, and your time to God for this gift of gifts, that is what He really wants.
Yet most people toss that heavenly feeling aside the moment they examine their bank account. Throw that happiness out the door! Replace it with...worry? If you don't have the money to buy the most luxurious and exciting gifts for every person on your list, depression and worry builds, and you begin to develop feelings of inadequacy. Nobody will understand that I cannot afford a huge and expensive present for them. Embarrassment prevails. My wife knows a woman that worked two full-time jobs to buy presents...uh, okay.
If you feel that way, STOP! Let's look back a little over two thousand years. In Bethlehem we see a carpenter and his wife in a stable. In a manger used to feed cattle is a newborn baby lying in the hay. God almighty himself has brought his son into the world in this lowly setting. The first people to receive a birth announcement are scruffy and at-the-bottom-of-the-economic-totem-pole shepherds tending sheep in the fields. The couple to whom God blessed with his son are not visited by their king that just so happens to be the king of God's chosen people nor the priests of God's Temple. Even worse, the couple will eventually have to flee to another country due a death warrant being issued against God's son by that very king. Add to this the fact that the priests of God's Temple will be responsible for torturing and killing him by driving huge nails through his hands and feet to affix him to a cross where he is mocked by God's chosen people.
That son of God never claimed ownership of any material things. He hadn't any money. He depended on people's kindness to put him up for the night. He associated with the poor and outcasts of society. Yet he was the richest and most powerful person to ever walk upon this earth in human form. God's son proved that one person can change the world and not need a penny nor any other form of material wealth to accomplish that great change for good.
He never hated one person but, instead, loved everyone unconditionally without exception during his entire life upon this earth in which he, the son of God, served us. This son of God, this king of kings, this God in human form said,
Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV)
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you - you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
I have nothing to add to that. Jesus said it all about worry in those lines.
Enjoy this time with joy that God gave us his son to take away our sins. Give joy, praise, gratefulness, and your time to God for this gift of gifts, that is what He really wants.
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