Christmas grows with us each year. While our traditions may change little year after year Christmas has a power to make things seem new to us. Perhaps it is an opportunity to see how much we have changed over the course of a year as we look upon the timeless traditions we cherish within the holiday season. We don’t often realize how much we change day in and day out. We are too busy with our busy lives; then all at once in a moment we see ourselves in a different way.
The Apostle Paul speaks of this in his great soliloquy about Love in First Corinthians: “but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.” (1 Corinthians 13:10-12) The Apostle Paul learned that the Love of Christ is always at work growing us into what we must become. Consider Christmas, when you were a child you no doubt thought and acted like a child, with a list of things you wanted to receive.
When we grow we learn like Paul did from our Lord Jesus that “It is better to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35) Christmas is transformed from a time to get to a time to give. As long as we grow in this way Christmas will continue to be a generous season.
How has Christ grown the love in your heart, how will you give this holiday season? I encourage you to be generous. To give a little more, to love a little more, to share a little more, to grow a little more. It is after all better to give than to receive, and what we give is what those we love will receive. That is who the infant Christ is to us after all, the gift of a generous God to those whom he loves.
