A Giving Heart...

Christmas is one of the most wonderful times of the year….gift wrap and bows, shopping and Starbucks (Yeah, you know we all do it!), Christmas trees and wreaths, singing Christmas carols while visions of sugar plums dance in our heads…What could be grander than the Christmas traditions that we all find warming our hearts during the Holiday season? It almost makes me giddy inside like a child on Christmas morning just thinking of it…and its 360 more days until Christmas rolls around again.

So what is it about Christmas that makes us want to be in the “giving” spirit. Nothing feels better than watching the glow in someone’s eyes as they are getting ready to open the gift YOU fought the woman in the red Santa hat over on Black Friday (not to mention the young man you elbowed to get that gaming system that your child just had to have because their old one was a year out dated). There’s no feeling like it. Oh yeah, there are some of “those” people (smiles because she knows how narrow-minded that phrase can be) out there who prefer to buy for themselves, but they’re just odd to begin with…no offense to those relatives of ours who buy, wrap, and label gift cards to themselves. There’s just something about “giving” that makes people feel content, or warm like that $5 Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha makes you feel on the inside.

Why can’t we feel this way ALL YEAR LONG?…but then that would mean I would have to do this “giving” thing all year long…really? I don’t have enough time in the day to “give” my family a healthy, homemade dinner after work every day. How would I ever find the time, or for heaven’s sake---the money, to give myself ALL YEAR LONG? I have ESP because I knew that was what you were thinking. That’s the same thought I had when I passed a scrawny looking man standing on the side of the road today in the freezing rain, holding a sign, and carrying a dirty, ragged old bag with him. I was in a hurry to get back to my warm, cozy bed in my toasty home because I woke up sick this morning and the doctor that I just paid for gave me a shot and a prescription that I was able to pick up in my nice warm vehicle. After rereading the whole thing out loud, I’m hearing just how ridiculous it sounds, too!

I don’t even know why I am writing all this…I guess mainly because an older neighbor/friend/church member passed away three days before Christmas, one of my dearest friends is at the hospital with her daddy-in-law right now who is losing his battle to cancer as we speak, and now this man who I found out today has, despite what “we” all thought when we passed him on the street, been trying to find a job and to no avail. All these senses maximized by the fact that Noah’s flowers came in today and are ready to be placed “there” (and I can’t say where because I have yet to be able to connect those words with his name in a sentence yet without a tear-soaked, drudgery of a meeting with myself and the voices in my head that make me want to SCREAM! No I do not have multiple personalities and yes I do know Jesus is here with me whenever those moments arise…just hard to explain unless you’ve been there).

So, here’s where I am going with all this babble…As I was passing the man for the second time today, I was reminded of Matthew 25:35-45, and I am horrible with scripture quoting so let me paraphrase…when I was out on the street and you saw me standing there hungry, without clothes, or a place to stay, which choice did you make? Did you do something to help me, or shrug your shoulders and say “what can I do? I am one person? They need to work like I do and they may have something? He’s just lazy?” Even the smallest thing that you do, I see, and when you did these things to even those who don’t seem to deserve it, you are doing it to me. In so many words that’s what Jesus said to me today. So, my New Year’s resolution is to get healthy, (of course, isn’t everyone’s?), clean my house (hello!), AND DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO SHOW OTHERS THAT I LOVE THEM, but mostly, THAT JESUS LOVES THEM! Even the smallest act is not going to be too small. Because in the end, the reason Christmas is so wonderful and it feels so great to give to others is because God gave the ultimate gift to us. Yeah, yeah, yeah….there’s the connection….Don’t roll your eyes at me! It is the reason that we love to watch other’s smile…the reason we love at all! HE really is!

So I am ending with this verse taken from Philippians that is used in Noah’s Legacy Mission Statement:

“Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.  Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” NLT