Deuteronomy 16:13-17 NIV
Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your Feast–you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete. Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the LORD empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.
Though the above Scripture refers to the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Weeks, these are not what I was thinking about when I came before my Lord today. In fact, it was not even the Thanksgiving Holiday that so many of my American friends are celebrating today. Truly, it is Christmas ~ the Season that is on so many of our minds despite the fact that we do not celebrate its Eve for another month from today. Why am I thinking about this today? And why did I choose this Scripture on these Feasts to talk about Christmas?
For two reasons, my friends. First of all, because the focus in our magazines and catalogues and storefronts is already on Christmas, as shopping has already begun for and by so many of us. But what about the One for Whom this Season represents? What shall we bring Him? Do any of our preparations include Him? Do any of our thoughts? That is the second reason. My thoughts have not been on Him.
The above Scripture refers to three Feasts that the Jewish people celebrate, and on these Feast days they are commanded, “Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.” Deuteronomy 16:17 NIV
I have been richly blessed by my Almighty God and Father through and by my Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, do I think of Him when I celebrate the Greatest Gift that I have been given? The very Gift of my Saviour Himself? Do I bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord my God has blessed me when I go to worship Him on Christmas Eve? Am I even thinking of His coming? Or of His return? Or am I thinking of what I have to do that night in preparation for tomorrow’s meal and company and gift-opening?
I have to confess that my Christmases past have not honoured Jesus in the way that I would like for them to have done. And, no, there is nothing I can bring to Jesus to repay Him for what He has done for me; for He has sacrificed His very Life that I might have life in Him, eternal abundant life in Him! However, I can bring my self to Him every day and bring Him my all, and that is what I want to do this year, starting today. I do not desire to focus on how much money I can or cannot spend on gift-giving, but on the Gift that matters: Jesus, and what He means in my life and how I can share Him with others. I want to bring Him my heart and ask Him to open it wide to Him and to those around me who need so desperately to know Him. What about you? What do you desire to bring to Jesus this Christmas Season?
Dear Lord Jesus, let me come before You with a pure heart of worship, desiring not to take, but rather to give of Your Perfect Gift of Love this Christmas Season that others may see Your glorious Light shining in me and want what I have. In Your holy and precious name I pray. Amen.