What gifts are you giving?
From the desk of Sandra Fritcher, Lower School Principal:
Do you feel the pressures of Christmas? The days are quickly passing, and it will be Christmas Eve before we know it. Traffic is terrible everywhere 鈥� especially where we want to go! When you finally get to the store or mall, parking is limited or nonexistent. The stores are crowded, or the stores don鈥檛 have what you want. If you order online, you worry the order won鈥檛 get here in time, or you have to pay a small fortune for shipping. Worse than that, you can鈥檛 think of what to buy for certain people. The family and friends you need to shop for already have everything they need. Or do they?
What about love or friendship or understanding or consideration or a helping hand or a smile or forgiveness or a prayer? We cannot buy any of these, but we all need each one. What would happen if each one of us gave these kind of gifts? Our communities and our families would be different. And what if we gave these gifts all year long 鈥� not just at Christmas? Wow, what a difference we could make in people鈥檚 lives.
We sing Christmas songs that tell about these kind of gifts. We tell Christmas stories about these kind of gifts. We all long for these kind of gifts. While it is just fine to buy gifts for loved ones, we need to remember that Christmas is not in the stores. Christmas is in the hearts of people. We need to rededicate our efforts to share God鈥檚 love with others 鈥� not just in all the store-bought stuff, but in the gifts that the heart needs, and we need to do this all year long.