What do you want for Christmas? That used to be an easy one for me; a car or motorcycle part, a gun or accessory for a gun, maybe even a tool; easy-peasy, right? I worried and stressed about the list this year, and I couldn’t come up with much – finally, I listed a couple of books about airplanes and engines, and then, “bacon.” Hickory smoked bacon, thick sliced. I gave her the list and she said, “Seriously – bacon?” with her eyes rolled back in her head. I finally explained that I really didn’t want so much stuff anymore – I would be satisfied if the kids and grandkids would just come down and eat with...
What do you want for Christmas? That used to be an easy one for me; a car or motorcycle part, a gun or accessory for a gun, maybe even a tool; easy-peasy, right? I worried and stressed about the list this year, and I couldn’t come up with much – finally, I listed a couple of books about airplanes and engines, and then, “bacon.” Hickory smoked bacon, thick sliced. I gave her the list and she said, “Seriously – bacon?” with her eyes rolled back in her head. I finally explained that I really didn’t want so much stuff anymore – I would be satisfied if the kids and grandkids would just come down and eat with us, and I could just spend some time with them, that would be enough, and be a really good Christmas.
I imagine a lot of you are at that point in your life, too. It’s not that you profoundly spiritual or anything, it’s just that your garage or closet or basement is full, stuff doesn’t do much for you anymore, and you just want to get together with those you love – and that’s enough! If everyone is healthy, and the planets align and the pandemic doesn’t shut us all down, we’ll get together with those we love 2, 3, maybe even 4 times in a month – it really can be “the happiest time of the year!”
Maybe that’s one of the values of the Christmas season– one of the gifts that God planned for us all. The joy of giving; the anticipation of pleasing those you love; the time spent with friends and family, eating and laughing and talking, and the pictures!
It’s all about relationships! Relationships with those you love, and that life-changing relationship with the God you love. One of God’s greatest gifts is experienced in our “gatherings:”
God has given us the gift of a faith-based guide for our relationships.
In our enlightened culture, it seems we are finally beginning to realize just how important our relationships with others are; in fact, the acceptance of this great truth may be one of the best things to come out of our battle with Covid 19. The things of this life are woefully inadequate to make us happy; it is obvious that we cannot be happy if we are separated from those we love!
Jesus understood this; over and again he spoke on the value of people, and of loving and nurturing your relationships with them. Most of his “Sermon on the Mount,” dealt with relationships – both with God, and others. READ Matthew 5:5-9
(Matthew 5 “beatitudes:” “gentle,” v.5, “merciful,” v.7, and “peacemakers.” V.9): These are not complicated or revolutionary concepts, to be sure – but when put into practice regularly, our lives will radically improve, because of their profound impacts upon the relationships in our lives! Jesus included these teachings because: 1) He wanted us to experience good relationships in our lives, and 2) He wanted his followers to understand that good relationships with others is a Christian value!
Here is just one more of his most popular teachings that is simple and easily understood, and at the same time profoundly life-changing: “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12
You know this as the “Golden Rule,” of course, and it completely eliminates the need for most of the rules and lists you will find in today’s “self-help” culture. Jesus simply says: “treat people the way you want to be treated!”
Here’s just one real-life example of how this works: If I cut someone off in traffic accidentally, I wave, and would like a little mercy. So if someone cuts me off, and they waive as if to say “I messed up,” I will give mercy, without road rage.
In this situation, my “old-fashioned” faith can guide me in a very modern situation!
Simply put: God wants to “gift” us with good relationships, so He teaches us how to have them! Incredibly, He even gets involved to help:
God is present to help us in our relationships.
You’ve heard the old adage, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” There are times when we want to do the right thing, but can’t make ourselves do it, right? Even for Christians this can be a problem; especially when it comes to some of our messy relationship issues!
As I said earlier, God wants to “gift” us with good relationships – so not only does He teach us relationship truths in scripture, He gets personally involved in our lives to help us to the right thing!
READ John 16:7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”
One of the great gifts that come as a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus is the presence of God’s Holy Spirit within us! Before that time, the Spirit of God came to certain people for a specific task or length of time; but after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the Holy Spirit was made available to all who would follow Jesus as Savior. God literally “lives within us.”
There are all sorts of advantages to His presence, of course – and many of these advantages have to do with developing healthy relationships. Paul explained this in his letter to the church at Galatia: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23) These are the result of the Holy Spirit working within us, and every one of them helps us do our part for good relationships. He teaches us, He can give us the ability to relate well to others, and He can even give us the desire to relate will to others, as an act of our faith in Jesus.
God has given us the gift of good relationships; Not only has he given us teachings based on Creator-God’s understanding of our heart and soul, He has promised to be with us, in every situation, to help us. Because of God’s work in the Christ-child, we can truly “love one another.”
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