What’s the best gift you’ll get this Christmas? [
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I What’s the best gift you’ll get this Christmas? “THAT’S THE TRUE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS: PEOPLE BEING HELPED BY PEOPLE OTHER THAN ME!”
’ll never forget the Christmas it snowed. It was so deep that the newspaper hadn’t been delivered. My dad, a creature of habit, couldn’t cope with the thought of a Christmas without the morning paper. So he got dressed, jumped in his big 4x4 and headed out to find an open shop or petrol station. That was about 8am. An hour later, he still wasn’t back. The rest of us gathered round the Christmas tree together, ready to get stuck in to the gifts. But 10am came and went . . . and still no sign of Dad. We began to get worried. By 11am we were panicking, thinking we needed to phone the police and report him as a missing person. Suddenly, at around noon, as though everything was perfectly fine, Dad pulled up in the driveway and got out of the car with a newspaper under his arm. We all stared in disbelief. Four hours to get a paper? We were furious until he told us the story.
When he’d arrived at the petrol station, he’d found a family who had been stuck there all night. Seeing his powerful four-wheel drive pull up was like a miracle to them. The man begged my dad to drive them all the way to their house. When they arrived home safely, he thanked my dad again and again: “You saved our Christmas— maybe even our lives!” On his way home, Dad discovered many more stranded people. So he towed cars to safety and drove freezing families to their warm homes. He was smiling ear to ear when he finally got home, telling us of the joy on the faces of those he had rescued. You might be thinking this is the start of just another “it’s better to give than to receive” lecture . . . Well, not this year. This year it really is so much better to receive! After all, we can only be generous givers, full of Christmas goodwill, if we actually have something to give. That Christmas, years ago, my dad had something to offer: a rescue. But those people stuck on the side of
the road had nothing; they could only receive his kindness with thanks—and relief. Sometimes we may well feel just like them: at our wits’ end and wishing there was someone to help. Whether we’re full of seasonal cheer or struggling to make ends meet, God wants every single one of us to focus on what we can get this Christmas! Let’s face it, there’s nothing we can give God—he’s God! He’s got literally everything already. Talk about hard to buy for . . . But he has quite the gift he wants us to receive: Jesus. Imagine if my dad had driven up to those people, huddled together for warmth, and given them some new books or bath bubbles to unwrap, before wishing them a “Merry Christmas” and driving off. That would have been crazy, right? Sure, those are ‘good’ gifts in general. But they wouldn’t have been good gifts for the people on the road who really needed, and wanted, a rescue. In the same way, in Jesus, God has actually given us a gift that we need—and that we want . . .
Getting what we want for Christmas
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“CHRISTMAS SWEATERS ARE ONLY ACCEPTABLE AS A CRY FOR HELP.”
ven the best gift is only great if it’s something you need or want. There’s nothing worse than having to give that glassyeyed, ‘super-excited-I-got-another-pair-of-socks’ smile . . . I remember when my friend James was given a particularly humiliating gift as a teenager. He had asked for a trendy black batwing jumper; the fashion of the day. What he received was utterly mortifying. His granny had knitted him a tight-fitting jumper with feminine puffy sleeves and—horror of horrors—a digger on the front! Even owning such a thing would be social suicide to a fifteen year old trying to fit in with his friends. Poor James was forced to wear it because Grandma had been thoughtful enough to make it. What was meant as a kindness became an absolute misery to him. Isn’t that kind of how some of us feel about the baby in a manger? Perhaps a good story or tradition when we were younger, but it’s out-dated and ill-fitting now. Or maybe the birth of Jesus is just part of a totally alien world—it’s just got nothing to do with us. For some of us, the thought of finding out about Jesus is as embarrassing as James putting on that awful jumper! The problem for James was that his poor old granny wasn’t in tune (like, at all) with what he really needed and wanted as a young teen. Any gifts that are totally out of touch with reality are no good for anyone. And it’s easy to think of Jesus in this way too. What could he possibly have to do with us today? But God isn’t out of touch with what’s going on in his world. He gave Jesus 2,000 years ago just as much for the people then as for us now. But to understand exactly why Jesus is a good gift and the right fit for each one of us, we have to understand exactly what it is we need.
What we really need
“NO ONE IS SEEKING GOD. ALL HAVE TURNED AWAY; ALL HAVE BECOME USELESS. NO ONE DOES GOOD, NOT A SINGLE ONE.”
Romans 3:11-12, the Bible
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e may or may not think about ‘God stuff’ in our lives, but all of us push him out of the picture, whether we mean to or not. He made everything, but do we thank him for it? He made everyone we meet, but do we treat them all with respect? We don’t love God; at best we ignore him. And so we end up just living for ourselves instead. God is never involved—even in the good stuff we do. But there are consequences to this way of life. This is our own creator and designer that we’re pushing away! We don’t have to look far to see this world, with its terror attacks, poverty and war, is a troubled place. Bringing it closer to home, we put passwords on our accounts, lock our doors at night and worry about what are kids are up to when they’re with their friends. Too often we do and say things we know we shouldn’t, hurting ourselves and those closest to us. But, in the end, it’s God’s world we’re breaking and his people we’re hurting. What we really need is a fresh start with him. Think of you and God a bit like a friendship. Your friend asks you to
meet for lunch; you don’t get there until 5pm. They ring you to catch up; after ten minutes you hang up on them mid-sentence to watch TV instead. They organise a party and ask you to bring some of the food; you turn up late, empty handed and with a bunch of strangers who end up drinking everything and trashing the place. Your friend confides in you with something important; you instantly tweet about it. What happens next? It’s not hard to see where this is going. The friendship is as good as over. It’s not just that you’ve done stuff wrong—the trust and relationship is completely broken. That’s what it’s like between us and God. We can say sorry about the things we do wrong and try to ‘do better’, but we can’t fix it. Just as it would be up to our friend to forgive us and let us start over; it’s up to God to decide what to do about how we have treated him. He tells us in the Bible that actually we deserve to die and face his judgement. And there is nothing we can do about it. So, more than a fresh start, we really need a rescue. That’s where Jesus steps in.
Why Jesus isn’t just a grannyknitted jumper with a digger on the front . . .
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“GOD DECIDED
esus is sometimes known for being a ‘good guy’, a teacher, IN ADVANCE TO maybe even a revolutionary. And, of course, a baby in a ADOPT US INTO manger. Over 2,000 years ago. But that, as a gift, is about HIS OWN FAMILY as good to us as an ill-fitting, granny-knitted jumper. BY BRINGING The Bible, however, tells us that Jesus is God’s Son and US TO HIMSELF that he was born on earth for a very specific reason: to die. THROUGH JESUS Jesus, the baby, grew up to become Jesus the man who was executed on a cross of wood. His death wasn’t an accident or CHRIST. THIS IS an unfortunate result of his radical teaching. No, it was God’s WHAT HE WANTED plan all along. Jesus came willingly to take on himself God’s TO DO, AND IT judgement towards us. Jesus died in our place so that we GAVE HIM GREAT don’t have to face God’s anger for how we have rejected him. PLEASURE.” But that wasn’t the end. Three days later Jesus walked Ephesians 1:5, the Bible out of his grave. He came back to life, our issues and failures having been paid for, to offer us new and unending life with God. When we trust him, he makes us the very family of God. The Bible tells us we can even call God our dad! He will look on us as his children. So Jesus doesn’t just fix our relationship with God, he makes it unbreakable, like the genetic bond that parents pass on to their children. It’s like Jesus makes us brand new with God’s own DNA! He forgives us of the stuff we’ve got wrong, no matter what it is. And we’ll belong to him; he promises to always be with us. After we die, we have a promised place in heaven, his home, forever. It’s like we’re the people stranded on the side of the road: nothing to give, no rescue expected, no way to sort ourselves out. Yet, despite all this, Jesus gives us the rescue we need—and so much more. It’s a new life, new start, new family, new home, new future and new identity; all in one. That’s the gift God wants us to open this Christmas.
The gift that keeps on giving
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“I ONCE BOUGHT MY KIDS A SET OF BATTERIES FOR CHRISTMAS WITH A NOTE ON IT SAYING ‘TOYS NOT INCLUDED’.”
hat’s on your list this Christmas? A new smartphone or the latest gadget? A new book or boxset? When you compare Jesus to your wish list, he might still sound a bit out of touch and unexciting. But he’s not a thing or a gadget. Think instead about what you really want, not just for Christmas, but in your life. How about security, someone who’s always looking out for you, a place to belong forever, an exciting future, an answer to any guilt or regrets . . . ? That’s who Jesus is and what he offers. He wants us to know him personally. And like any relationship, it’s not just a one-time thing or a box to tick. Knowing Jesus is daily life for those who trust him. It means we never have to go through anything on our own; we can always talk about it with him and ask him to lead us. And if we get things wrong or make mistakes, we can know he’ll forgive us when we say sorry and turn back to him— that’s why he died on the cross! He has died for everything we’ve ever, or will ever, do wrong. So we can live for him in confidence, knowing nothing can change his mind about us or the fact that he wants us to be part of his family forever. So, what’s the best gift you’ll get this Christmas? If you want to think more about who Jesus is and what the Bible actually says about Christmas, why not check out more of our resources online at ourdailybread.org/christmas We also want to encourage you to talk with a Christian friend or make contact with a local church where there will be people who can help you think more about Jesus and the difference he makes.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. © 2017 by Our Daily Bread Ministries. All rights reserved. Printed in the United Kingdom
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