Why We Give at Christmas

It is a few days before Christmas, and looking back, you have given to many charities this month--Operation Christmas Child boxes, food drives, adopted families, donations to the Children's home, Salvation Army, Toys for Tots, the local homeless shelter. There are many reasons we give during this time of year. Many people are generous during the holidays because we want the less fortunate to have a good Christmas too.

The true meaning of Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, which was the greatest and most generous gift of God. He gave His only Son to become a human in order to die on the cross and rise again. "For God so loved the world,  that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). His purpose in living was to die. When Jesus Christ was alive, He healed the sick, He gave sight to the blind, He raised Lazarus from the dead, He stopped storms, He walked on water, He fed thousands of hungry people, He welcomed  the little children, He loved the outcasts, He touched people who were contagious with leprosy. Jesus was the perfect example of generosity. So when we give generously at Christmastime, it is giving to Christ. And since it is His birthday, those are the gifts we can bring to Jesus for Christmas. "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40).

Psalm 147 reminds me of the life and character of Jesus Christ while He lived here on earth:
-He gathers the exiles.
-He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
-He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.
-He sustains the humble.
-He supplies the earth with rain.
-He provides food for the cattle.
-He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you.
-He grants peace.
-He satisfies you with the finest of wheat.
-He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost.
-Who can withstand His icy blast? He sends His word and melts them;
      He stirs up His breezes, and the waters flow.

Let's give like Christ this Christmas!