What do you think about when you think of Christmas? Since you are reading this devotional, your response will probably be Jesus. You would be correct to have that as your first thought since He is the reason that we celebrate. It is at Christmas that we celebrate God coming and taking on human flesh. However, let’s go a bit more personal and ask the question again of what do you think about when you think of Christmas?
Perhaps your first thought goes to spending time together with family and friends. Maybe your thoughts drift towards gathering for Christmas dinner. Perhaps it is a family tradition of going out and looking at lights. For some, it is about the presents.
Sure, none of us want to admit it, but we can base how our Christmas was on the presents we receive or how the presents we give are received. Think back to when you were a kid, and you would get up and head to the tree. Early in life, it is just the excitement of getting presents. However, if you are like me, as we get older, we tend to be more calculating. We ask, how many gifts did I get? Did I get what I asked for? How many presents did my siblings get? We begin to base our sense of love, acceptance, worth, and security on the gifts we receive or how the other person responds to receiving our gift.
Like most things, we will become disappointed with the gift receiving and giving over time. It could be less gifts than last year or not a big enough gift. It could be the other person didn’t ooh and ahh over the gift like we wanted, and both lead to us feeling discontent. This feeling of discontentment can leave us feeling empty and bitter. It can leave us feeling unloved, unaccepted, worthless, and insecure.
Fortunately, our love, acceptance, worth, and security are not based on the quantity or quality of the gifts we receive. They are not based on how another person reacts or doesn’t react. Our sense of love, acceptance, worth, and security are based entirely on who God is, what God did for us, and who God says we are.
Christmas is a time when God shows us how unconditionally loved, accepted, full of worth, and secure we are when He comes to earth to be born in a manger. Jesus comes as the perfect gift to fix our sin problem and to provide our righteousness. John the Baptist puts it this way, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
This season, let us turn our hearts to the source of our contentment. Let us celebrate the greatest gift we could ever receive, Jesus, and not put our sense of okayness on the earthly presents.