My Gift to Christ

INTRODUCTION

Do we truly understand who Jesus is to us, and why we have Christmas in the first place? We celebrate it every year, but does it have a personal impact on us or is it just a mechanical annual occasion for merrymaking, even perhaps a time for rushing and traffic jams?

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Happy Birthday, Jesus! Lest we forget, December 25 is not our birthday. It’s His! But oftentimes, we tend to act as if we were the stars of the Christmas season, and we forget all about Him. We usually think of our festivities, the scrumptious food and the presents we are going to give each other. Wouldn’t it be a great dishonor to the birthday Celebrator if we would not prioritize Him above all the hustle and the bustle?

My friend always organizes an outreach in December to a group of less fortunate individuals – orphans, poor people, and the sick. It is his way of sharing God’s bountiful blessings with them. He is not a wealthy man, but he does his own share of making others feel the love of Jesus through his endeavors.

Matthew 1:21-23 tells us, “She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’ which means ‘God is with us.’”

Our Lord Jesus is our Redeemer from our sins, low self-worth and weaknesses. He is our hope and our strength. What do we personally need saving from? How can we allow Him to continuously heal us? To truly deepen our celebration of Christmas, He invites us to allow Him to be reborn in our hearts.

How can we concretely show Him our love and gratitude? Our gift need not be material, although this is one possibility. There are other meaningful ways to give Him our offering. Perhaps there is someone in our life who is difficult to forgive? Our openness to and cooperation with His graces to pardon this person could be our manner of saying, “I love You Jesus. Please help me forgive this person as I strive to follow Your will. May I love him/her the way You want me to.”

Perhaps we are lacking in patience. Instead of being grouchy in the middle of the traffic jam, we could pray for the intentions of people who have requested us to intercede for them. We could surrender our small and big sufferings to Him as a sign of being thankful to Him for being our Savior and Friend.

Christmas is all about Christ, our Messiah – His generosity towards us. Shall we exalt Him through our acts of love as we joyfully celebrate His birthday?

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