Christmas is a lesson in giving ourselves …

Are you a giver?

Now, really, who would say, “No, I’m a getter! I love to get things, I love to receive gifts! I’m all about getting!”

Few of us would say any such thing, but in all honesty, many of us would be telling something closer to the truth with such a statement. There’s not a lot of people out there who prefer to give, who find giving to be deeply gratifying (until they try it!).

God is a giver.

In fact, everything and anything that is good in our lives comes from Him …

“Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow,” James 1:17.

If we examine the history of humanity, or the much briefer history of our own lives, we see many ways that God gives to us — a purpose for living, life itself, people who love us and people to love, a mission to live, our daily bread, and so much more. God is a constant giver!

In spite of all that giving, it wasn’t enough. We had been foolish enough to break, and ruin, our relationship with Him and had no way of fixing it.

God could fix it!

But only if He gave more than He had ever given before.

To fix our blunder into sin, God would have to give Himself to us, for us.

To reconcile us back into a good relationship with Him, Jesus would have to alter Himself by taking on the form of a man and literally give His life so that we may have life.

Again, if we look at human history, we see God often “gave” to people a person, someone to lead them, someone to instruct them, someone to warn them, someone to help. But in this case, nothing short of giving Himself would suffice.

And so we have Christmas, God giving to the world His Son.

Because of that gift, we can be adopted as God’s own children! And as His children, we, also, should be givers like our heavenly Father is. Not just in tangible gifts, although we should be good givers of those as well, but we should follow in the footsteps of Christ and be willing to go so far that we give our entire lives away.

We pour out ourselves for Him who poured out His life for us.

Givers giving in the example of the One who was our greatest Gift.

Are you willing to pour out your life for the cause of Christ? Are you willing to step into lives and give sacrificially in the name of Christ?

Mitchell Dillon tells this story about giving from his experience of living in the Big Apple …

Living so close to New York City for many years, my wife and I received quite a few visitors hoping for a tour of the city. We were glad to oblige and so in a short time we became pretty good guides. Usually, included in this tour was a trip to Chinatown. The food is terrific and it’s a lot of fun going through the unique gift shops you find there.

Perhaps the most popular gift item for our guests was the ten-dollar Rolex watch. Virtually all of our guests would take at least one home with them. They look real, so long as you don’t look too closely, but don’t rely on one to keep accurate time. As far as watches go, they aren’t even worth the ten dollars you pay for them. These fake Rolexes (Fauxlexes!) exist for one reason only: somewhere there are real Rolexes. If it weren’t for the real thing, there wouldn’t be a market for the pretenders.

At Christmas, God gave us something more precious than a Rolex by giving us Himself …

“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us,'” Matthew 1:23.

How are you following in God’s example of giving? Are you giving all of yourself, or are you giving a cheap knock-off version of who you’re supposed to be in Christ? are you containing your giving to what’s within your comfort level, or are you giving sacrificially? Are you giving only from your overflow, the leftovers, or are you just giving away all that you are and all that you have?

That’s what God did at Christmas.

Maybe that’s what we should do, also.

Scotty