Regifting Jesus
Can you believe that Christmas is just around the corner? Seems like we just had Christmas 2010 doesn’t it? If you have been out and about, you see the signs everywhere. Malls are getting busier. The radio stations are playing Christmas music again. The Christmas specials are on TV every night. Lights are appearing on houses where there weren’t any previously. Some guy is ringing a bell outside the store you’ve been visiting. The ads on TV are attempting to make you feel guilty unless you buy their amazing product. And you get that wonderful yearly family letter from that one certain family (who you haven’t heard from since last Christmas) telling you how wonderful their year has been, and how spectacular their kids are! Isn’t Christmas marvelous?
Have you ever opened a present and inside the box – is another box? And inside that box – is another box? And so on? But when you get to the gift, it really was a wonderful gift, despite all the effort you had to go through? Christmas is a lot like that! When we can get rid of all the other stuff that kind of looks like Christmas (the wrappings) but really isn’t, and get down to the actual gift, it really is marvelous!
“For God so loved that He gave …” That’s what Christmas is all about! Your Gift was heaven sent from God Himself! That really is amazingly marvelous! God so loved this world, this sinful, evil, wicked, rebellious world, that He gave the world (you and me) the very best Gift He could possibly give!
We often say that there is nothing that God cannot do. But we are wrong! For God could not have given us anything more special to Himself, than the Gift that He did give us some 2000 years ago! He COULD NOT have given anything more special than His Son! THAT is amazingly marvelous!
You have probably heard that term, “regifting.” That is when someone takes a gift that was given to them and gives it to someone else. In fact, I recently had a lady in our church tell me that she did this occasionally, and no, I won’t tell you who that was, unless of course you buy me lunch! (Just kidding about that part. The lunch I mean.) Regifting has is roots in the Bible, for you see, we are supposed to take that which we have been given and give it away to others. We can regift Jesus, love, forgiveness, grace, and a whole host of wonderful biblical values. Not only CAN we, that’s the whole idea! We are CALLED to do so!
This Christmas, I want you to practice regifting. If you were in Sunday’ service, you heard a message about “Crazy Love.” I am asking all of our church family to practice a “crazy” (biblical) style of love for this entire month! It’s a way of regifting. It is a simple truth that unless our love gets “crazier” (more obvious, more passionate, more practical, more sacrificial), then the world will never even notice it, because they have tuned us out, just like you do the commercials of your favorite TV show.
I am asking you to intentionally step out of your comfort zone for the specific purpose of impacting someone’s life with “crazy” love; love that they probably don’t deserve, they may not value, they probably won’t ever pay you back for, and they may not even understand. Really, all I am asking you to do is what the bible commands you to do, simply “regift” what God has given you. That is your calling and that is your mission. Take it personal this December and see if you don’t live a more fulfilling Christian life than you have been experiencing. After all, that is what the manger and the cross are all about!
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Nov. 2012