Christmas Giving and Receiving – December 22, 2002
Giving and receiving are what Christmas is all about.
Not just the gaily wrapped presents under a Christmas tree or the carefully made remembrances for loved ones. No, giving in the truest sense of Christmas means receiving a sacred gift first.
It began when the Father gave His Son to the world on a still night in Bethlehem under the radiant light of a glorious star and the strains of angelic hosannas. The Babe grew into a man, but His outward circumstances didn’t proclaim His true identity. He was a citizen of a conquered nation. His footsteps never went beyond a radius of 150 miles. He never received a school degree or spoke from a great pulpit or owned a home, and all the roads He traveled were traveled on foot. The Son’s gift to us is His life—a life that freely bore all mortal sin, pain, and sickness in perfect love and understanding, a life that offers salvation and a home with Him if we will receive the gift.
One of the signs of a person who has accepted that gift is the willingness to give, because in receiving our Savior, we become more sensitive, more generous, more pleased to share what we have with others. The Lord promised this when He said, “Freely ye have received, freely give.”1 That’s why He used examples of giving when He described who would finally come home to Him:
“Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. . . . Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”2
When we have received His gift, we want to give, and give more of ourselves at Christmas and at every time of the year.
Program #3827
1. Matthew 10:8.
2. Matthew 25:34–36, 40.