The Gift of God’s Love: A Reminder to Represent Christ to Your Loved Ones This Christmas
Christmas movies and holiday commercials have conditioned many of us to think this time of year is easy. It’s all about enjoying good food, relaxing, gift-giving and spending time with loved ones, right? Well, while the holiday season indeed represents all of those things, I think we would be remiss if we didn’t admit that Christmastime comes with its fair share of challenges, too. Many of us will be spending a lot of time with family, some of whom we may not see more than once or twice a year. With all of those bodies being together in one space for such a long time, disagreements, annoyances and even resentments from long ago can creep up. Especially when other people present at these gatherings are provoking you or setting a bad example, responding in anger can seem like the easy thing to do. And friends, behaving this way is the easy thing to do, no doubt. What’s not easy, however, is being a light for Jesus to our loved ones in all circumstances.
I’m reminded of the verse John 13:35, which says, “By this, everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another” (NIV.) What a humbling challenge!
It’s often said that “God is love,” and as demonstrated through John 13:35, when we behave lovingly toward others, we are representing God well! If we were all to take this verse seriously, onlookers would be able to pick a Christian out of a crowd just by observing the way that they love others. How many times do non-believers look at us and say to themselves, “Why do I need your God? You are nothing but a hypocrite!” They don’t see God living through us. We look the same as everyone else to them (or worse).
This Christmas, I challenge you to implement this verse on a smaller, but equally effective scale. I encourage you, myself and everyone reading this to outdo our family in love this Christmas. And that doesn’t mean spending more money on gifts than everyone else, although it’s okay if you do! But rather, let’s humble ourselves and our wants, lifting up love at every opportunity. If you’re curious as to what that entails, refer to 1 Corinthians 13, the “love chapter,” and read it aloud to yourself, inserting your name in each place it says “love.” Then ask yourself, is that how people see me? We get to choose how others see us. This Christmas, let’s all challenge ourselves to let everyone around us see Jesus Christ living in and through us. God has shown us tremendous grace and has forgiven us of all our sins. Can we demonstrate the same grace and forgiveness to all our family members?
Like I said, this challenge is not an easy one, and we can’t expect to love our families perfectly, because we are imperfect people. The goal of living in love is not to glorify ourselves, but God. Imagine if, because of the love they experienced through you this holiday season and the peace they see in your life, your family members wanted to know more about Jesus? Let’s commit to being a light to our loved ones this Christmas, even to the ones who know God! In this way, you and your family will be blessed, and God will be glorified, which is the true meaning of this wonderful time of the year.
Merry Christmas!