Christmas gifts

We just had our Christmas party for the many friends we've made in our monthly bread run, and it was great!  It's been said many times that in giving, the giver gains as much.  It's true.  I'm not sure who was happier, those of us who organised the party, or those of us for whom the party was organised.  Doesn't matter, we all enjoyed it :)

Having said that, I don't deny that we were certainly busy in having to put together the party.  Giving does require effort.  We did worry about what food to get, what activities to organise, whether people would come (and later, whether too many people would come!), what we should give as presents, whether they would like the party...!

But the party was a gladsome and joyful time, not only because of that night's effort, and not only because of the previous two weeks' effort in organising it, but in the many years we have spent in much less glamorous settings - bussing in after a long day's work, hauling boxes of bread around, knocking on doors, struggling with dialects :D

Yet as John Piper said, "If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, but your joy will be full".  I'm sure I speak for everyone who has joined us over the years, that this is absolutely true!

As I reflect on giving, one other thing comes to mind.  Everybody likes gifts!  Gifts can be Christmas presents like toys, towels and trinkets, but more broadly, they are also things like our jobs, our resources, our families, and even our health.

In my recent holiday, we went to a place called Caesarea Philippi.  This is actually the source of water for the Jordan River.  Today, the flow of water is much less than before, but there used to be a significant spring in this area.  As a result, the place became deified - people were thankful for the gift of water, and attributed this to various gods over the centuries.

It's interesting to me that ancient people understood this truth - they knew that there was a Giver behind the gift of water, in the same way that we know Christmas presents don't appear under the tree by themselves.

The question is this - today, the spring at Caesarea Philippi barely flows.  What if one day it stops altogether?  If there was a Giver in the past, does he stop existing just because this particular gift stops?  And is it the water that is special, or the Giver?  The answer is obvious to me - I used to give my kids toys every Christmas.  But now that they're bigger, I give them more grown-up stuff, like clothes or more "useful" stuff.  This year, I got my daughter the portable photo printer she's had her eye on for a while :D  So, even though the toys stopped, the giver is still here.

What does this mean?  It means we have to appreciate the Giver, not merely His gifts.  It's not the gift which is special.  The Giver is.

Gifts run out.  They change.  Jobs, resources, even family and health.  One day, they run out.  But the Giver remains.  His love endures.

We're happy when gifts happen.  Happiness occurs when gifts and good things happen.  But that's a precarious way to live - dependent on "happenings" which we can't control, and which will run out.

What we really want is not mere happiness, but joyfulness - independent of "happy happenings".  And this, this is the joy of Christmas - the very unique and profound gift of Jesus, who is the Giver Himself.  The Gift is the Giver!

A very blessed Christmas to you and your families - may we all enjoy the the Giver of Christmas this wonderfully special time of the year and throughout the adventures we will experience in 2018!

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