'Tis the season of fun, festivities, family, friends...and gifts! Christmas has increasingly become a time of getting caught up in the presents. But while we're wrapped up in material gifts, we can miss out on the best gifts of all.
This year, we're looking to take back Christmas by focusing on the greatest gift-giver of all, God, and His generosity toward us. As we explore all the amazing gifts God gives to us, we invite you to change the way you approach Christmas by joining in the Rewrapping Christmas challenge.
THE CHALLENGE
We encourage you to come together as a family or friends, think of someone you know who has a need, and ask God how you could meet that need as your gift to Him this Christmas. Here are a few examples of different types of needs to get you thinking—emotional, spiritual, or physical.
SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE
We’d love to hear how you blessed someone this season. Please let us know your experience of sharing your best gift this season and the impact it had on both you and the recipient.
For the past 2 years we have written notes during the year regarding fun or special events we had that year. Then on Christmas morning we reminisce about, many things we had already forgotten. This year we are going to add a few small gifts to each other back into our Christmas morning.
ReplyDeleteOver the last year, I have driven past a bus stop on my way to work and noticed a young lady waiting for the bus each day. I felt a connection to her and have thought about giving her a small gift but had not done so until Hill Country Bible Church introduced the Rewrapping Christmas Challenge. This gave me a strong desire to buy a gift for her. So on Wednesday of this week, I waited for the lady to arrive at the bus stop and gave her a small present, which included lotion, shower gel, hand soap, and a decorative towel. She seemed surprised but very thankful to receive a gift. I introduced myself and told her that I see her nearly every day as I drive by the bus stop. I told her that she seems like a special person with a sweet spirit who I felt a connection to, so I wanted to spread some Christmas joy. In her gift bag, I included a personal note on a card, along with Bible verses. This blessed me probably more than it blessed her!
ReplyDeleteWe have a teacher in our small group who is a close family friend. For our Rewrapping Christmas challenge we cleared her Amazon Wishlist for her classroom. This allowed us to not only bless a beloved friend, but to also extend that blessing to the kids in her classroom and to hopefully make an impact for the rest of the school year and beyond.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea - love how that gift was generous towards and impacted multiple people!
DeleteOur family decided to serve together at all of the Christmas Eve services this year. We've enjoyed serving at a couple services in years past, but felt that giving our time on Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve was a good way to serve our church body, assist church staff by filling a need as well as helping welcome our community to experience Jesus.
ReplyDeleteTim's point that Christmas is often more about stress than joy resonated with us, two grandparents with two married children and three teenage grandchildren. We had been talking for several past Christmases about not exchanging Christmas presents among the adults in the family, and we finally took that step this year, explaining to everyone in a formal e-mail what we wanted to do. We contributed toward financing the cancer treatment of a sister-in-law, who lives in a country where you have to pay for strong pain-killing drugs out of pocket. Our children's families also made generous contributions. The grand kids came over and put up the Christmas tree, taking less than an hour from attic to finished, but the most important part was the joking and camaraderie with six of us working together. And I wrote a letter of gratitude to my high school French teacher, who passed away a few years ago. His extraordinary life, described on the internet, made me think once again of a discovery I made long ago: that everyone who passes through our lives in formal relationships--teachers, workers, people behind the counter--all have significant and sometimes dramatic life stories that we usually never know about, and when we find out we may be astonished.
ReplyDeleteWe are a senior couple, 70 plus. We told our children that we don't need presents. What we need is visits and help. This is what we as a community should teach the young people--to give gifts of love instead of material things.
ReplyDeleteThis year, I decided to focus on the meaning of truly "Rewrapping Christmas." My gifts are in Encouragement, so I used this time,to write letters of encouragement, make personal phone calls to actually speak 1:1 which in return brought laughter and joy, which you can't get through a text message. I shopped for gifts to give from our Tree of Lights 2019 Gift Wish. It brought so much joy, tears, and gratitude as I went through the aisles looking for the specific gifts on the list. I visited a church friend in the hospital, and took Christmas cookies and a poinsettia plant to let her know that I was thinking of her,and praying for a speedy recovery. Rewrapping Christmas was priceless, and it proved that valuable acts of kindness is a God-given life lesson that should be Rewrapped on a daily basis throughout the year. Thank you for opening my eyes once again for the true meaning of Christmas. "Giving of Yourself is Priceless & Selfless" 💕
ReplyDeleteI'm a single mom with a daughter off at college, so I challenged myself to focus on gifts of love.. and time. This year I volunteered with the Women's Storybook Project and traveled with 3 women I had never met before to a women's prison in Gatesville, Tx. There we record the inmates/mothers as they read stories to their children. The mothers also give short messages to their children and the cds and new books are then mailed to them. This gives them a chance to hear their mothers’ voices while the mothers are away. I don't know that I could ever fully describe what I felt as I experienced such an intimate moment between a woman and child. For the few minutes as these women read to their child, I was like I wasn't even in the room... it was just a few minutes where a mother could speak lovingly, read a book to them just as if they were sitting in their lap, holding them and loving them. Christmas was rewrapped for me that day inside that prison as I have never felt more blessed to experience such a beautiful moment. While I was giving the gift of my time, God was giving me a gift to hear pleasant words like a honeycomb. I'll never forget the words of one mother though, as she skipped over her words as she read. I went to stop the recorder and she stopped me by continuing to speak, "Don't stop recording." She then leaned in to the recorder as if to speak directly in her child's ear, "You hear that, mija? We all make mistakes. And it's okay. You don't need to stop and go back. You just do better the next time, have love in your heart, and keep moving forward." She continued reading the book.
ReplyDeleteGod gave me, those ladies, and several children the gift of Himself and wrapped it in a pretty little bow that day. It was the best Christmas I've ever had.