Many of us have heard that it is better to give than to receive. Advent is the awaiting of a gift from God, in his Son Jesus Christ. As we await this gift, we also await another gift, the one of salvation that comes apparent at Easter. Yes, I know this is Advent, it is not even Christmas and here I am speaking already about Easter. However they are all so much related, it becomes difficult to separate them out. In fact, how can we separate them? We cannot have Easter without Christmas. What is Christmas without the Advent’s anticipation and wait of the Gift of a Messiah to be born on Christmas? We have this chicken and egg conundrum every year to ponder. God however has a handle on this as of course. God always has. So no need to fret, God said let it be done and so it was and is.
It is not so bad being on the receiving side. In fact, it is humbling to be a receiver of gifts, ones that you can never pay back, and gifts that were given for the sake of Christian love. Our family has always tried to be generous wherever possible. We have tried to be the giver of gifts. Remember, better to give then to receive, right? However, this year has been a tough year for our family and many other families as well. We have had to learn, yes I said learn, to be humble about receiving gifts. As you may have heard, the Dills are moving to Seminary and Doug is now unemployed. This obviously means a complete change in life style for all of us and reliance upon many others to help us through. In these tough financial times, many are going through similar or worse situations. In learning to let others help, we have learned to accept the gifts vs. giving the gifts. This is not always easy to do. However someone wise told me once, that for others to give, some have to receive. If we fail to allow others to give to us, then we are stopping them from getting what they need as well. Hummm, now there is a thought, it can be better to receive than to give. Now, back to the season at hand.
God gives the gift of a Messiah to his people and again gives them the gift of forgiveness and eternal life with God the creator and redeemer. For God, it is better to give then it is to receive. However for us it is better to receive these gifts, for only God can give the gift and God does not need the gift but we do, the greatest gift that all of mankind has ever received, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
God blesses you with God’s Gifts, accept them humbly and proclaim the Good News in Jesus Christ for all the world to hear!