A Humble And Simple Christmas

It is just two days to Christmas and Jonathan and Jane are all excited, already counting the gifts they are expecting to receive. Facebook is experiencing an overload of posts on Christmas parties, holiday greetings and photos of the exchanging of gifts. Malls are crowded with Christmas shoppers as they rush to complete their lists of presents.

I have no gifts to give. The rush of events and the grind of daily routine find me without any gifts to give anyone. In the past, I would have something special for at least some people and, in good times, I had something for most everyone. This year, nada!

I am feeling bad, sad that I have no gifts to bring. It is turning out to be a rather melancholic Christmas. A humbling feeling as well. All I have to give this year are hugs and kisses. The gift of myself. Is my self good enough to give? Will the people I will be giving my self to find it good enough for the keeping and the enjoying? It will be a humble and simple Christmas for me.

The first Christmas was humble. It was in a stable, because there was no room in the inn. It was very simple. Just a family, some shepherds and the animals. A far cry from the lavish Christmas parties today. People waiting for the Messiah must have been dumbfounded to see in the child in the manger the promised savior of the world.

God is gracious and He gives gifts to His people. The name ‘John’ means exactly that – God is gracious. And when He gives gifts and blessings, they are in the form of the persons that we are and the life that we enjoy. May I find the true and real meaning of Christmas in the humility an simplicity of the first Christmas

Lift up your heads and see; your redemption is near at hand.
~ Psalm 25

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child
she gave birth to a son.
Her neighbors and relatives heard
that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her,
and they rejoiced with her.
When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
but his mother said in reply,
“No. He will be called John.”
But they answered her,
“There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”
So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,”
and all were amazed. 
Luke 1:57-63