Three gifts for you!

In the Kigo theat­re we immer­sed our­sel­ves in the Christ­mas sto­ry. A sto­ry that comes from ano­ther world. A world that does not at all cor­re­spond to ours – at least that is how it seems. So much seems stran­ge. Angels are prac­ti­cal­ly only known as deco­ra­ti­ve items. Sheep at best as a side dish for chips and herb but­ter, and she­p­herds at best on the pack­a­ging of Pena­ten cream. And yet this sto­ry also has some­thing to say to you and me. Just as the wise men from the east brought three gifts, I too would like to high­light three gifts to you from this Christ­mas story.

Gift 1: Don’t be afraid!

The first gift is the mes­sa­ge that the angels addres­sed to the she­p­herds. «Do not be afraid!» (Luke 2:10a NLB). We live in tur­bu­lent times. Many things that are dear and important to us stand on shaky legs. Many slo­gans about the feast ahead of us turn out to be more sil­hou­et­te than fact. Christ­mas – the fes­ti­val of love – some of us expe­ri­ence a lack of love in the fami­ly at this time. Con­tem­pla­ti­ve Christ­mas – that was once, it has beco­me rather stressful days. Christ­mas a cele­bra­ti­on of fami­ly – but for some of us it is the worst days of the year, when we are remin­ded even more of our loneliness.

It is pre­cis­e­ly into this situa­ti­on that the angels» encou­ra­ge­ment resounds: «Do not be afraid! Yes, do not be afraid. The­re is some­thing that goes bey­ond all the­se Christ­mas slo­gans. Do not be afraid, becau­se «The Saviour – yes, Christ the Lord – has been born tonight in Beth­le­hem, the City of David!» (Luke 2:11 NLB). Do not be afraid, becau­se God beca­me man to enter into a rela­ti­onship with you.

2nd gift: God accepts our odd lives!

The second gift of Christ­mas is the mes­sa­ge that God accepts our odd lives. We cele­bra­te at Christ­mas that God beca­me man, he came into our bro­ken world, even very fra­gi­le – as a baby. The­r­e­fo­re, we need not be afraid of him eit­her. Around Christ­mas, life often winds down. Work­outs, going to the gym, school, work, ever­y­thing slows down and steps down a gear. But it is also at this time that we rea­li­se how much we are also depen­dent on exter­nal things. Per­so­nal­ly, I always look for­ward to Christ­mas. In my fami­ly, it’s cus­to­ma­ry for us to do Secret San­ta and for each of us to wri­te down three wis­hes. I always look for­ward to the day when I final­ly get my pre­sent. Sin­ce I’ve been with And­rei­na, I even get to unwrap pres­ents twice, becau­se her fami­ly also does Secret San­ta. But as much as I look for­ward to Christ­mas, I also have a quea­sy fee­ling after every meal, gift unwrap­ping, carol sin­ging etc. I feel unea­sy. An unea­si­ness rises up in me. Was that all? Is that what you were loo­king for­ward to now?

No mat­ter how big and valuable a gift is, at some point it fades. At some point I stand the­re and rea­li­se that I have a gap insi­de me that even the most expen­si­ve and fan­cy gifts can­not fill. It’s as if some­thing is miss­ing in our lives. The gift of Christ­mas to you is that God accepts you as you are. Just with all your rough edges. Yes, he wants to use your weak­ne­ss. God says: «My strength is shown in your weak­ne­ss». (2 Corin­thi­ans 12:9a NLB).

Gift 3: Pass on your light!

The third gift of Christ­mas is for all tho­se who have said yes to God’s gift, to his Son Jesus Christ. But this third gift is dif­fe­rent, it is not a gift to keep, but one to pass on. The third gift is then also cal­led: Pass on your light! Jesus hims­elf says of hims­elf «I am the light of the world. Whoe­ver fol­lows me need not wan­der in dark­ness, for he will have the light that leads to life.» (John 8:12 NLB). After the she­p­herds had been with Jesus, they went out and told ever­yo­ne about what they had just expe­ri­en­ced (Luke 2:17–18 NLB). Christ­mas is not just about recei­ving gifts. It all starts with the gift of Jesus to our world. But all who deci­de to fol­low Jesus should them­sel­ves beco­me a gift to this world. This gift to the world is cal­led the light of the world and Jesus hims­elf tells us what this should look like. «You are the light of the world. In the same way, let your good deeds shi­ne befo­re men, so that all may see them and prai­se your Father in hea­ven for them». (Matthew 5:14a & 16 NLB).

Gift one and two are the pre­re­qui­si­te for us to beco­me a gift our­sel­ves. When we rea­li­se that we our­sel­ves need not be afraid becau­se God has accept­ed our odd life and accept his gift, then we our­sel­ves can beco­me a gift to the world.