Mobile Ministry Magazine

As many of you celebrate the holiday season, in good or favorable standing, I'd like to put in your minds and hearts that being on either side of the gift is a good thing, but on both sides - giving and receiving - that we have to first be on the side of showing love to one another.

One of those aspects of perspective that we don't want to forget in this highly digital age is that these tools are just a means to display and execute God's love to those around us. Whether it is something that allows us to connect to family and friends, or something that enables someone to get out of the jobless funk, we have a responsibility with all of the gifts at our disposal to present the side of Christ that is comforter (John 14:26-27).

I don't say this to mean that we are not to be truthful either. These tools allow us to also confront and be confronted with our sinfulness in ways that sometimes we don't want to be reminded of. We have a responsibility to present this whole Gospel to all people.

These gifts are very much temporary. To look at them in any other way would be idolatry. Let us be sure that whether we were just able to give people a word or a wrapping, that we give them the love that has been shed for us by Jesus himself. And then with this love, let us use our gifts to elevate God the Father, making His light show to generations now and in the future.

Labels: devotion, gifts