The best Christmas gift

Read thank you letter based on 12 days of Christmas (page 134 A Stocking Full of Christmas, compiled by Mark Stibbe & published by Monarch Books).

If you ask any child what they most look forward to about Christmas, chances are they will talk about receiving presents. I suspect it is true that Christmas time is, for most people, is about the giving and receiving of gifts. Do you know that in Britain we will spend around £15 billion pounds on gifts at Christmas! Someone once asked, what three words best sum up the Christmas season. “Peace on earth.” “Goodwill to all,” and “Batteries not included.”

Although I get pleasure out of being able to give gifts to my family, I don’t personally enjoy the process of shopping for those gifts. I hope that most of the time the gifts I buy are appreciated. I was looking at the BBC Cumbria website earlier in the week, and they have been running a competition to see what the worst gifts people had received. Amongst the ones that caught my attention were these gift ideas.

One man in Carlisle was sent by his mother industrial sized toilet paper and air freshener for Christmas. Another man in Berwick, a keen football support, was sent a book on football teams by his gran. The only problem was it was about teams he didn’t support, and it also happened to be three years out of date. But probably the award for most least inspired Christmas gift has to go to the man who sent his brother a pack of Bachelors Cup a Soup. However, I suppose we shouldn’t be too disparaging because as the saying goes, it is the thought that counts!

If you ask a child what they enjoy most about Christmas, probably at the top of their list will be receiving gifts. And Christmas is all about the celebration of the greatest gift that has ever been given. That is the gift of God Himself, revealed to us in his Son Jesus Christ. This is amazing message of Christmas, that God came into the mess and confusion of this world, to show us his love, and he came not as a powerful conquering King, but as a tiny baby. Christmas is really the ultimate love story, because it is about God’s love for you and me. Those famous words in John 3:16 remind that it is because ‘God so loved the world’ – that is you and me ‘that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’

Jesus brought special gifts to all those who encountered him, the gifts of love, joy, peace and hope. Every person in the Christmas story who encountered this child, had their lives touched in a very powerful and life transforming way. And to this day Jesus is still touching and transforming lives here in St Martin’s, in Walsall, in our nation, and throughout the world. Jesus today is bringing God’s gifts of love, joy, peace and hope to the lives of millions of people around the world. Jesus came into the world, to reveal to us God’s love, so that we might enjoy the fullness and abundance of life that God offers us all. It is the most wonderful gift that anyone can receive, the gift of knowing that we are God’s child.

How do we respond to this gift? When you wake up on Christmas morning and see the parcels under the tree, you have two choices, you can open the presents and receive the gift with gratitude, or you could choose to leave the present unopened under the tree. It is the same choice that we face with Jesus. Today Jesus is offering us the gift of God’s love, joy, hope and peace, he wants to come and fill our lives so that we can discover life in all its fullness. The question is do we receive this gift with joy, or do we choose to leave it unopened?

The reality is that at Christmas time, when we receive presents we don’t really need, God offers us a gift we cannot do without, his love, his joy, his hope and his peace in our lives. What will your response be this year?