Christmas is here! Do you have all your gifts purchased? Do you Christmas shop last minute? Do you do material gifts…or gifts of service or quality time?
I’m actually organized this year and have most of the gifts for my family ready to go! Stoked. My fav gift Adam gives me is endless supplies of massages. As athletic as I am, massages are my fav in times of sore muscles!
As I’ve shared before, physical gifts are not my love language, but I know they are for many people and that’s great! For children gifts and actually all the other love languages (touch, affirmations, quality time and acts of service) are recommend.
Like so many things in our modern world, Christmas gift-giving sometimes gets out of control, and we can get distracted by the consumer mentality and cause us to lose sight of why we give gifts in the first place. My faith is my lens for life and that applies to Christmas and gift-giving as well. We give gifts at Christmas because Christmas is when we remember the greatest gift we have been given – salvation through Jesus Christ, the precious baby in the manger and the ultimate sacrifice held to a cross by love. This is the focus in our household.
One of my favorite verses sums it all up beautifully and succinctly…Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV) says,
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Let’s break it down and be encouraged…
For by grace you have been saved. Grace is receiving something you don’t deserve. Do you see the world around you – it’s kinda gnarly from my perspective, and we truly need a saving grace! We are saved from our sins by the sacrificial love gift of Jesus Christ.
Through faith. God gives us faith, this is a gift.
It is the gift of God. He loved us first and offers us the gift of His love and grace every single day.
Not a result of works, so that no one may boast. We did nothing to earn or achieve the gift. That’s not how gifts work. We simply believe and receive.
Some people think it all sounds too good to be true. I get it. Just believe and receive God’s gift of grace and salvation?? That’s it?? That’s too easy. It can even feel unnatural. We are used to working hard for things in this world and achieving because of what we do. But God’s love, His grace, His mercy and compassion are not of this world – and that’s the beauty of it!
This Christmas season I encourage you to receive the ultimate gift of God’s love.
John 3:16
