What to Give Jesus This Christmas

What to Give Jesus This Christmas

Jesus is our best Christmas gift ever. But what could we give to Jesus this Christmas?We all know that Jesus is our best Christmas gift ever. But do you know what to give Jesus this Christmas? Just yesterday this was a novel concept to be. It had never occurred to me that I could concretely give Jesus a birthday present until I read Ann Voskamp’s blog post where she shares how their family gives birthday gifts for Jesus by buying goats or mosquito nets. I thought it was a brilliant idea. So during the dinner yesterday I brought the subject up asking our children “What could one give as a birthday gift to Jesus?”

I was ready to lead them into the right direction with Jesus’ words in Matthew 25: 40 ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me’ and take it from there. But, boy, was I surprised by our daughter’s answer.

Without any hesitation our five year old said “Love!”

Just like that she cut right to the core of Christianity. She thought it was totally obvious that love was the most important thing in the world and hence the best gift. Here it was my turn to be lead by a small child.

Of course I knew that Christian love, agape in Greek, was giving-love. Of course I knew that we are called to love others and do good for the sake of Christ. But somehow I had not connected the dots. Somehow I had forgotten that by loving others we can love God also at Christmas.

We indeed can give Jesus birthday gifts by loving people far and near. And these gifts don’t necessarily cost us a thing. We can love by being a friend, helping out when we can, serving in a soup kitchen or volunteering at a nursing home. But the essence is to share the love we’ve first received ourselves.

Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code—don’t sleep with another person’s spouse, don’t take someone’s life, don’t take what isn’t yours, don’t always be wanting what you don’t have, and any other “don’t” you can think of—finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can’t go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love. (Romans 13: 8-10)

This is what it means to be a follower of Christ;
this is what it means to be a servant of God;
this is what it means to be Spirit-filled:

To receive the love and grace of God and extending it to others.
Every day of our lives.

 

Gracious God,
Thank you for loving us so much
that you sent your love down to us in Jesus.
Thank you for loving us first and hence enabling us to love others.
Show each of us how to love you back,
how to love others like you.
Inspire, ignite, indicate!
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: What are you going to give Jesus this Christmas?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you extend God’s love and grace to others!

Giving thanks today for
#951 God first loved us
#952 God loved us so much that he sent Jesus
#953 Because of God’s love we are able to love
#954 We can give gifts to Jesus by loving others
#955 We are called to live in agape
#956 We are called to extend agape
#957 Christian life is loving God and his people
#958 Children reminding us of the essence of life and love
#959 Faith is simple
#960 Love is a gift.
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Photo courtesy of Kelsey Johnson. This post was refurbished from 2010. Linking up today with Linking up today with What’s on Your Heart Tuesdays, Wordfilled Wednesday, All Things Heart & Home ,God-Bumps and God-incidences ,Work in Progress.

8 thoughts on “What to Give Jesus This Christmas

  1. Yay for your daughter! What a perfect response! Our gift to Jesus is to give the gift of love to others… love this! Beautiful post! Blessings to you!

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