“God Gift” + Merry Christmas

Matthew 19:14 New International Version (NIV)

¹⁴ Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

My four-year-old son said something profound a few weeks ago. We were discussing Christmas and somehow, we ended up talking about gifts. Then he paused and looked at me. He said, “Mom, I want to give God a gift.” I smiled but deep down, I was pleased and shocked at the same time. Then I asked, “What kind of gift do you want to give God?” Then he thought for a second and said, “A GOD GIFT.” I held back my tears as I processed his answer. That was deep right there. I didn’t have the perfect response to give him so I told him that we could give God thanks and praise for everything He does. We went into detail thanking God for family, love etc.

The amount of faith that I have seen in my kids as they process the word of God is just beautiful. When they read bible stories, they accept it. I remember once being told, “The bad guys got Jesus, but don’t worry, the stone was rolled away from the tomb. Now he is in heaven next to the Father!” I giggled a bit because that is their interpretation, and yes, it makes sense!

 It’s sad that as we grow older, we think that we can take things out of the bible, portions we believe don’t make sense or appears outlandish. We pick and choose what fits and what doesn’t. We highlight what will be widely accepted by the multitudes and diminish other things. Bible verses have been twisted into incorrect mantras, scroll through Instagram to see today’s rendition of the word. We choose to re-create, adapt and re-make the word of God.

My purpose of today’s post is just a reminder that we should emulate how the children behave in terms of faith. We should accept the word of God as truth. Precisely, during this Christmas season, we shouldn’t place too much emphasis on Santa, the Grinch etc. Yes, these things may be part of the season nowadays but they are not the main reason. We can include them in our Christmas traditions but not at the expense of the real character- JESUS. We can’t omit him!

 As Christians, we should emphasize the word of God more and highlight the real reason behind the season. We are not celebrating a mythical baby who was born in a manger. As Christians, we celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Merry Christmas!