Okay. I am not proud of it. I would never admit it if I were pressured to. But I have re-gifted. I have been given a gift that I was pretty sure that I could not use. I have stored it in a closet somewhere for a period of time. And then, when the time was right, I have given that gift to someone else. I feel better now that I have that off my chest. Confession is good for the soul.
I feel better now that I have admitted it, but I still live in fear. I live in fear that one day that re-gifted gift might make the rounds and in some distant Christmas might end up back with me. I guess you could call that "re-gifting irony". (Or it might just explain fruitcake… I am not sure that there are millions of fruitcakes out there… I think there are just five. And they keep being passed around and around.)
Or one day, someone might thank me for a gift and the person who originally gave it to me might overhear. And I would be caught. I even came up with a good, reasonable justification to respond, “You know, your gift brought me such joy, I had to share the blessing with someone else…”
Wait a minute. Back up keyboard. That almost sounded, um… spiritual.
Wasn’t one of the first callings that God ever gave to a person of faith a challenge and a promise about passing along some joy and blessing? You would have to look all the way back the book of Genesis to find it. God’s first conversation with Abraham (then called Abram) went something like this, “If you will move and trust me, I will take your childless family and turn you into a great nation. Just leave your home town, and I will show you this great new place.” And then God makes this promise to Him, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Gen. 12:3)
Now that verse is interpreted a few different ways in the Bible. The first is revealed to us in Galatians 3. Paul shares with us that this blessing through Abraham and his offspring was a promise and indicator of the Christ child born in Bethlehem some 2500 years later. And through Christ, all the peoples of the earth are blessed. Jesus’ birth brought us a promise of peace and goodwill. His birth reminded us of the love of God for us. His birth reminds us that God is a giver: a giver of all good things.
And yet, this verse also reveals to us a basic principle behind God’s calling of all people. We are blessed by God to be a blessing to all people. God blesses and wants us to bless others in return. God wants us to re-gift. God wants us to take the very blessing that He has arranged for our lives and to pass it on to others. This is the very heart of the way He wants His people to interact with all people.
Too many times, we make sharing our faith all about words. There are some who really think in their heads that if we can just polish our delivery and vocabulary… if we can just work on our sales pitch, people will accept and want the calling of God. And so we work our words. Like a vacuum cleaner salesman, we hone words and phrases that are true, but meant to trap people into admitting we could be right. The vacuum cleaner salesman says, “Do you want clean floors?” And… we want clean floors. We know the answer to the question is yes, but we don’t want to agree because we don’t want his $1400 vacuum cleaner.
There is no amount of word memorization or charts, or cute phrases that can prepare the heart of someone else to be ready to want God’s love.
The only way people respond to the love of God is to see the love of God displayed.
In this Christmas season, we would like to challenge every person to be a blessing to someone. We would like to challenge everyone who attends MCC to find a way to serve in one of our three Compassionate Christmas projects this year. We were inspired by our teen’s commitments to God to look into our community and love them in very practical ways. We would like to challenge you to let God’s love flow through you to be a blessing to someone else. This isn’t about words. It is about being a blessing to all people.
- Join us and help bring the food or pack the sacks or deliver a meal on December 10-12th.
- Join us and bring a coat that our God can bless others with and display His love on December 20th.
- Adopt a Family this Christmas and bless those who cannot provide for themselves but may need to be shown that God will still provide for them. (If you don’t know a family that needs it, call the church office and ask for Carol.)
What God has blessed us with is enough to bless all the people of the earth. What Jesus did changed us. What He calls us to do is not trap people into admitting we might be right. God asks us to just bless people and show them His love.
So re-gift this Christmas. God expects you to. Share the love and the joy and the blessing He has shared with you. Just please... hold the fruitcake.
Loving and serving with you,
Andy
Matthew 10:7-8 7 As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give… (Pick at least one)
Macomb Christian Church