Jesus' Birthday

Last year around this time, I read a post by Ann at A Holy Experience that changed the way we do Christmas.

It made perfect sense to me. On my birthday, we don't all exchange gifts. Do you? So I wonder why we exchange gifts on Jesus' birthday.

I read the story to the kids and it made perfect sense to them as well.

Of course, we couldn't wrap presents and put them under the tree for Jesus to physically open Christmas morning. So what could we do?

Jesus said that whatever we do for the least of these, we do for Him.

So to give to Jesus, we gave to others...and it was the best Christmas ever yet!

You may think of other ways to give and serve others this month but these were our birthday gifts last year (some to be repeated this year and new ones to be added).

We put together hygiene kits for the men at the Coalition which we then had the privilege of handing out on Christmas morning.

We memorized the Christmas story from Luke 2 to recite to the residents of a local local nursing home followed by Christmas carols.

We saved our coins and donated the money we collected to Wycliffe Bible Translators. There is also an option of going through their Gift Catalog to specify where the money is used.

And we let the kids pick gifts from Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog.

There are so many ways to serve others not just at Christmas but throughout the year. Keep your eyes and ears open. Give and it will change your Christmas. Keep giving and it will change your life.

Our focus was so different last year. Getting wasn't what was important. We experienced in spades that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

P.S. We still exchanged gifts with our families because this is our conviction not theirs.

And we decided that because Thanksgiving is about the abundance of blessings God gives us and being thankful for each other, we will give our gifts to each other at Thanksgiving. At the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims gave gifts to the Native Americans and vice-versa. So this will be our time to exchange presents with each other.