‘Tis the season for Giving

Christine and I have recently joined a local choir and have been preparing hard for a Christmas concert. The choir is a secular choir but many of the pieces we sing are ‘Christian’ in nature. One such song starts as follows:

‘Tis the season for giving,
‘Tis the season for joy,
‘Tis the season to celebrate life,
To stop and remember love.

‘Tis the season for giving

At Christmastime, we are used to giving gifts to our friends and relatives. But it is all because God gave us the greatest gift of all, when he gave His only son, born as a baby human being. A baby who would grow up and show us what God was actually like, and who would lay down his life for the whole of mankind.

What better reason is there for us to give at Christmas time. We have the opportunity to give not only to friends and relatives, but to those with very little food or wealth in our own communities and to those around the world in urgent need.

Of course, it is not only about giving money, it about giving of ourselves. However when it comes to needs in other countries, we may need to make our gift in the form of money.

‘Tis the season for joy

If, this Christmastime you are going to give:

• Please don’t give because you ought to
• Please don’t give out of duty
• Please don’t give out of guilt
• Please don’t give out of habit
• Please don’t even give out of a sense of justice
• Give with JOY

‘Tis the season to celebrate life

• A man and a woman celebrate life as they give they gives themselves completely in loving each other.
• A mother celebrates life when she gives herself unconditionally to providing a loving home for her family.
• A father celebrates life when he works hard to provide financial security for his family. (Stereotyping is not intended here!)
• Sons and daughters celebrate life when they care for their parents in old age.
• God celebrates life with us when He demonstrates His amazing love and grace.
• We can celebrate life when we are aware of needs within our community and we are prepared to take action to meet some of those needs.
• We can all celebrate life when we treat people living in poverty in other countries as human beings and give so that extreme poverty can be eliminated.

STOP

• As we rush around preparing for christmas, STOP.
• As we buy, sometimes unwanted, presents for our relatives, STOP.
• As we hurriedly write dozens of christmas cards, STOP.
• As we prepare large meals, too big to eat, on christmas day, STOP.

… STOP, and remember love.

And remember love

• We remember how much God loves our race in sending Jesus, to live amongst us.
• We remember that the reason we are buying all those presents, is because we love the recipients.
• We remember, when aunt Ethel gives us brightly coloured socks yet again, that she actually does care about us.
• We remember the lonely people in our communities and make sure that someone is sharing life with them on Christmas day.
• We remember that we belong to one human race, and show love and compassion by giving some of our resources to someone living in another country.

Appeal

I hope that I have given you something to think about. As you know, I feel passionate about eliminating extreme poverty around the word. Quite unashamedly I am appealing for financial giving. If you have a favorite charity, by all means give to them. I represent Karuna Action and you can give to them by paypal or credit card by following this link.

OR:

Karuna Action is the new name for Kingscare, and if you want to pay in Dollars or Euros, you may find it more convenient to use the Kingscare website.