The retailers around the world want your money more during the months of October, November and December than any other time of the year. They start in September putting up decorations for Christmas and Black Friday sales start in October now. I can still remember when it was only on the day after Thanksgiving!
His presence, or is it about presents? I was texting with my daughter Kelsey the other night about the busyness of Christmas. I wanted her to pause now and then and just breathe slowly and remember it is about God coming to earth in the form of a newborn baby, His presence with us and not the presents.
Kelsey is a full time RN at a hospital in California. She told me, “Dad, I am completely exhausted, and it is only 7 pm.” She is a mom who has Olive, her soon to be one year old daughter, a husband, a home they are remodeling, 7 loads of laundry to do, dishes to wash, dinner to make, bathe Olive, wrap Olive’s birthday presents and some Christmas presents too. She needed to go grocery shopping, run by the UPS store and run two other errands, plus she had a birthday party coming up for Olive on the 21st to prepare for…… but first she had to get gas! It was just becoming overwhelming. I prayed for her and asked God to give her extra strength this December.
I heard a story about a woman who was beside herself with anger after Christmas shopping at a Mall for four hours with a one-year-old in a stroller and a three-year-old who was asking for everything he saw for Christmas. She goes to get on the elevator to go down to the underground parking and it is almost full. Everyone scrunches together and she makes it on with 7 bags of gifts. As the door barely clears her bags she shouts out, “whoever started this Christmas gift thing should be found, strung up and shot!” A calm lady in the back of the elevator responded, “Don’t worry, Jesus was the gift, we caught Him, and we crucified him.” Complete silence for the remainder of the ride down. You could have heard a pin drop.
Jesus did not start, “this gift thing”. God left heaven and put on skin in the form of a baby and lived and breathed as we do. He is still with us today in the form of the Holy Spirit. Remember it is not about the presents!
It is about His presence He left to dwell within us. Slow down, breathe, pause, close your eyes now and then and picture that baby over two thousand years ago in that nasty manger and remember what He did for the world He created and loved.
Jim Everett
