The Greatest Gift
However hard we search inside our Christmas stockings this year, we won’t find the essence of Christmas. We can’t find the true meaning of the season under a Christmas tree. In fact, we may find that the layers of wrapping paper make “finding Christmas” even harder.
But giving gifts is at the centre of our Christmas celebrations. Present buying may have become tangled up in consumerism, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy being able to give to each other out of love. After all, God loves to give good gifts.
“If you then … know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Matthew 7;11
“Mary gave birth to her firstborn a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in the manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2;7
What would Mary have wanted as a gift on that first Christmas? Shelter? A midwife to help her safely through the birth? A secure income for Joseph so that he could support his family? Today, there are many people whose needs are like Mary’s – the refugee fleeing conflict or natural disaster, those who are working to support their families in desperately difficult circumstances, mothers giving birth without access to basic medical care.
This year Christian Aid is promoting Present Aid as a way in which we can still give gifts to our loved ones, yet support others who have greater need than ourselves. In all our churches, you will find information about this wonderful way of giving – there are catalogues from which to choose the ideal present. There are many suggestions and those on my list include helping to pay for school uniforms so that children can attend school, or a life-saver disaster pack containing rice, lentils, potatoes, matches and oil.
At this time of year our thoughts turn to the Holy Land, a place of conflict so intimately tied up with Christmas. The work of Christian Aid in this place shows that even in the midst of division and trouble there are reasons to be grateful – and signs of other people’s generosity. Every weekend, Israeli doctors and nurses volunteer their time for Physicians for Human Rights and alongside the volunteers from the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, offer basic medical care and treatment to those in villages in the occupied Palestinian Territories. They come together because meeting the basic human need for health is more important than the political divisions that separate them.
So this Christmas, your gifts may bring the gift of shelter, food, fresh water or education to those who have the greatest need – either through the catalogues in one of our churches or by going to www.presentaid.org.
Wishing you all a joyous and peaceful Christmas.
Jo Reed