The Season of Giving

Who remembers the old Charlie Brown Christmas specials? Of course, there's the classic episode with the pageant, where Linus tells the true meaning of Christmas and Charlie Brown finds the little Christmas tree with the bright red ornament. Everyone remembers this one, but there is another one.

The second Charlie Brown Christmas special is a mix of little stories about the holidays, including scenes about a Christmas show, selling wreaths door to door, and the "trials of writing a Christmas theme." During that story, Sally, Charlie Brown's little sister, decides to write about the joys of getting. She writes, "Christmas is getting all you can get while the getting is good." Charlie Brown, confused by Sally's theme, tries to explain to her that the holidays aren't about getting, but, rather, giving. Sally doesn't understand and continues to insist that getting is the real joy of Christmas.

Everyone who has seen this episode remembers it fondly and laughs at poor Charlie Brown and all the problems he always runs into. But there is more to this little story than we think.

How many of us act just like Sally? Even unknowingly, this holiday season you may have acted exactly like Sally Brown does in the cartoon. How many of you had that one item on your wish list that you just had to have, begged for, hinted to everyone you knew, and even plotted revenge if you didn't get it? And then you finally got it; you ripped into the Christmas wrapping paper and there it was! You were so happy, and you were so excited that you got what you wanted.

You, my friend, fell into the "getting trap." You were so excited about getting something for yourself and enjoying it yourself, you completely forgot about the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

Christmas is the season of giving - being joyful and giving as much as we can give to those who don't have enough. Christmas is that time of year when we remember that God sent his son Jesus to earth to give us the ultimate gift, a way out of our sin and his love to enjoy. But he also wants us to share this love; he gave us so much that we could never use it all, and so we could give it away.

And here's the cool part: We don't have to wait for Christmas for give away love; we can distribute it all year round, every day. Why wouldn't you want to do that?! So let's give away our love; let's not end up like Sally, thinking that the holidays are about getting. But, instead, let's flip the script and give as much as we can. I guarantee it will be 100% better then getting something.