Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love – Lao Tzu When we hear Christmas, all we can think of are the clothes, cars, food, drinks, parties and others. All the music, different type of Xmas songs, the decorations, the lights and the colours. These and many more can be important during Christmas to make your family happy. But in all honesty Christmas is the time to celebrate Jesus the son of God who was born to this world for all our sake. Christmas is the time to thank God for the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a time to really seek his face and to really get closer to him and thank him for that gift he gave to us little over 2000 years, ago and up till date and even till future times the gift is still been enjoyed by everyone. This gift was told to us inJohn 3:16 – For God so loved the world that he GAVE his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. This is how Christmas became all about giving because the origin of Christmas (birth of Jesus Christ) itself was a gift. But what truly is giving? God has given us a gift two thousand years ago, the gift of life, the gift of salvation and the gift of healing without collecting anything in return. But how do we reciprocate this immense love shown to us by God? How can we repay his tender mercies and loving kindnesses? It is simple, as the Bible book of Matthew 25 vs 35:40 points out, it is all about giving to one another, giving to the poor, giving to the widows and giving to the orphans, it is the only way to repay God, even James 1:27 tells us all we need to know about Christianity, all we need to do to be perfect in Christ. I once was told a heart touching story about giving, a story someone shared about his pastor. His pastor told the congregation that a long time ago – about 26 years ago – he was standing in line at a convenience store in New Orleans and noticed the family in front of him did not have enough money to pay for the few items they were buying. The pastor tapped the man on the shoulder and told him to not turn around, but to please take the money he was offering him. The man took the money, and never turned around to look at the kind stranger helping him. Nine years had passed since that incident in the convenient store, and the pastor was invited as a guest speaker in a New Orleans church. He spoke, and after the service he was standing by the door greeting people, then a good looking man walked up to him and told the pastor an amazing story about how he had come to know the Lord. Several years ago I, my wife and our child were destitute. We had lost everything, had no jobs, no money and were living in our car. We were not Christians at the time and had decided to make a suicide pact, including the child. We drove to a cliff and quietly discussed our fate. We decided that we should at least give our child some food before we killed ourselves and drove away to buy him some milk and food. While we were standing in line at the store, and realized we did not have enough money to pay for the few little items we wanted to give our child for his last meal. Then a man behind me spoke and asked me to please take the money from his hand and to not look at him. The man also told me and that “Jesus loves you.” We left the store, drove back to the cliff and wept for 4 hours. It was the greatest act of kindness we had ever been shown. At that point we knew we could not go through with what we had planned to do, so we drove away. We drove by a church with a sign that said “Jesus loves you”, and went to the church the next Sunday. I and my family both got saved that day in Church. The man then told the Pastor that the minute he stood up in the pulpit and started speaking that he knew immediately that the Pastor was that kind stranger from 9 years ago. He said he would never forget that accent. The Pastor is from South Africa, so he has a very distinct accent. He continued on to tell the Pastor that because of his one random kind act he saved three lives that day, and because he had told them that Jesus loves them, it had drawn them in to a church where they accepted Christ!!!! Isn’t this beautiful, a simple act of kindness help saved the life of a beautiful family and won them back to God. This is what giving is all about, this is what Christmas is all about – love, sacrifice and sharing. Sharing gifts during Christmas is great but sharing love and strength is better, it’s the gift that will keep on gifting. An act of kindness you do today can never be lost, it will still come back to meet you, it will still come back to bless you. Cornelius a Roman soldier in the Bible gave to the poor so much even God had to send an Angel to go tell him he has noticed his giving (Acts 10 2:4) just imagined how much he would have given to people for God to take note of him. You haven’t been doing too much of giving all through the year, you’ve been busy, you’ve been broke, you’ve been surrounded by rich friends, you have been trying to sort things out in life. But that time has come again, God reminding us of the ultimate gift in form of the birth of his precious son 2000 years ago. This is the the time to share, to put a smile on people’s faces. Giving doesn’t necessarily have to be much, it just has to come from the heart. Let’s endeavour to help spread the word of God in the same manner God our father sent it unto us – a gift bestowed upon the earth in good faith and goodwill and rest assured God will bless us abundantly for it. Like Francis de Assisi once said “Give! For it is in giving that we receive”
THE GIFT THAT KEEPS GIVING
