Christmas time is a time when people give gifts and presents to friends, loved ones and sometime even total strangers, people do this for different reasons but I think one reason is to remember the Gift above every other gifts Jesus Christ, God’s love gift to the world. I think it’s a great tradition and we should do it more often, and not only at Christmas, particularly to people we consider undeserving or not within our normal circle of relationships, for that is what God did for us when He sent His Son to die for the unworthy and the undeserving.

Jesus is God’s gift that just keeps on giving, when I think about it I see that God giving us Jesus opened up a flood gate of abundance that just keeps on multiplying in our lives. Just see this, God gave us His Son Jesus and through Jesus gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit gives us the gifts of the Spirit, which are different ways that He manifests his power through the believer. That’s not all though Jesus gives us gifts of men through whom He teaches, equips and builds up the Church his body. God is all about giving, a giving based on love and faith. The world in which we live is ruled by a ‘me spirit’ , selfishness and self preservation is the mantra of the world. This is not the way of Christ. If the Church is the body of Christ, then we can say that the Church like Christ is the gift of God to the world. God has called us to live towards the world and each other as Christ did, Jesus himself by his example and teachings shows us how just to do this.

This morning as I worshipped before the Lord in thanksgiving for the unspeakable gift of Jesus, it seems that the Lord just impressed the phrase ‘Be the Gift’ in my mind. I believe there is no greater way to be appreciative of the Lord and all that He has done than to be the expression of the gift to our world. This is our call ‘to be the Gift’ Jesus put it in different ways, he told his followers to love each other as He had loved them, before then he had said ‘love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despise and persecute you and do good to them that hate you. Why did he say this? He said so that we can be like our father in heaven. We all know what the father did, He gave us Jesus, that’s the reason for the season.

That’s the spirit of Christmas; followers of Jesus Christ are called to gifts to the world, to love the unlovable, to minister out of our spiritual gifts and abilities, to be selfless in our actions and to encourage men to embrace the love of God through Jesus Christ.

As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:10-11 NKJV

This Christmas morning, I encourage you to ‘be the gift’, the expression of God’s love to the world through Christ, endeavor to be this not only on Christmas day but every day of your life.

Be the gift to your family, neighbors, loved ones, strangers and the world around you
. God bless you and Merry Christmas.

Tonye Oliver