Currently being in a transition between jobs (In need of a technical or creative writer (or voice-over artist, or guest speaker, or communications specialist)? Please take a look at my LinkedIn profile.), the oft-repeated Christmas thought...that it's not about spending a bunch of money on gifts, but about celebrating Jesus' birth...is coming to my mind a bit stronger this year.
I'm also thinking about how the Bible doesn't really make all that big of a deal about Christmas...that the resurrection of Jesus is far more important than his birth.
Another recurring thought is that the winter holidays see more suicides than the rest of the year.
Now pay attention. That's not a veiled cry for help, just a recognition that Satan would love to combine my joblessness and inability to be a generous gift-giver into dangerous, dark thoughts of uselessness...and that he can go suck eggs because greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world. (I John 4:4)
Truth is...I know that if Saint Nicholas was here, he would agree that Jesus gave the greatest gift of all to you and me. They led him to the slaughter on a hill called Calvary. And mankind was forgiven when they nailed him to the tree. (Randy Stonehill)
I'm trying to rethink the Christmas axiom of gift-giving this year. I'm leaning towards burden-lifting as the "better" gift to give. I think that the burden of sin, of human imperfection, was lifted by our creator God when he gave his one and only son. Our best imitation of that should be to seek the burdens of others and lift them. Praying that your burdens are lifted, and soon, brother.
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