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Christmas is all about receiving and giving gifts. God, as Christians know Him, is full of grace; that is to say, He is always bestowing gifts. Over the years, one of our family’s favorite Christmas movies has been the 1947 classic, “The Bishop’s Wife.” The movie centers on a bishop (David Niven) who believes God wants him to build a cathedral, but he cannot raise the funds or garner the requisite support to get it off the ground. Further, the bishop’s wife (Loretta Young) is hurt and frustrated by her husband’s singular focus on the cathedral. So, the bishop prays. God’s answer is an angel named Dudley (Cary Grant), who is not at all the answer the bishop expected or desired. Gradually, Dudley teaches the bishop the lessons of charity, grace and compassion; that his wife, his daughter and other peoples’ needs are far more important than building the cathedral. He learns that Christmas is about receiving God’s most gracious gift.
God’s Christmas gift teaches us several vital lessons about the receiving and giving of gifts. First, we should never judge a gift by its appearances, especially by those that impress the world greatly. God chose to hide His greatest gift in the poorest of packages: He wrapped His Son in a manger—and later in empty grave clothes. Second, it is sometimes impossible to judge the ultimate purpose and benefit of a gift. Biblical Christianity envisions a time when all of creation will magnify, worship and adore God’s Son (see Revelation 5). In Philippians, the Apostle Paul envisioned a time when every knee would bow and tongue would confess that He is Lord. George Friedrich Handel captured this magnificence in His glorious oratorio, Messiah. But someone viewing God’s Christmas gift in that dirty, filthy Bethlehem manger (or the empty grave clothes thirty-three years later) would never have visualized such glory. Finally, God’s Christmas gift transforms lives. He produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. He changes pride and self-centeredness into humility and other-centeredness. These virtues are then the basis for becoming givers, for He taught that “to be great is to serve.” So, we must receive in order to give—the message of biblical Christianity.
Perhaps, then, we have gotten it all wrong! Christmas is not so much about giving as about receiving, for at Christmas we celebrate receiving God’s greatest gift to the human race. That was the spirit of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the Magi that first Christmas. They understood the nature of God’s gift and received Him with worship and adoration. Fast forward two-thousand years. Part of our Christmas celebration is lovingly choosing a gift and paying its price for those we love—a metaphor for what God did on that Christmas morning when He graciously gave the gift of His Son. May we eagerly receive that gift this Christmas. |
