Sharing Christmas (Friday Devotional)

When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child.

- Luke 2:17

Every night this week, my family has spent time after dinner decorating the house for Christmas—pulling ornaments out of boxes, finding places to put nativity sets, hanging stockings, etc. Tuesday night was the big one, the night we set up our tree, and Andrew was excited to help. Carefully holding the Thomas the Tank Engine ornament Grandma had bought him, he circled around the tree until he’d found the perfect spot for it, then asked me to help him hang it on the branch. When he stepped back and admired his handiwork, he couldn’t have looked much prouder.

So we were confused a few minutes later when we saw him sitting under the tree trying to put the Thomas ornament back in its box. I asked what he was doing, and his answer has stuck with me all week: “I’m putting it away so that when everybody comes over to my house they can put it on the tree with me and they can have Christmas too!”

Without even meaning to, Andrew offered me a simple reminder: Christmas—its story, its themes, its message—is something meant to be shared, not kept to ourselves. Since the night of Christ’s birth, people have been proclaiming the good news that God is with us, and anyone who believes that to be true ought to be telling others. Hope, peace, joy, and love are too big a gift to hoard.

The sad truth is that someone in your life is trudging through this holiday season instead of relishing it. Perhaps they’re mourning the first Christmas with an empty chair at the table, or maybe they simply can’t get past the cynical commercialization of the holiday. Whatever the reason, these are the people who most need someone to share Christmas with them.

This is the time of year when we give—charities receive record donations, soup kitchens are full of volunteers, and, of course, presents are exchanged between family and friends. Amidst all the usual giving, make an effort during this Advent season to find the person in your life who seems more disappointed than joyous. And then see what you can do to make sure that, in Andrew’s words, they can have Christmas too. After all, Christmas has always been something worth sharing.