Without Jesus

Without Jesus, it is always winter but never Christmas. C.S. Lewis

When you stand at the threshold of a time of fellowship with family or friends, an exchange between people who should count each other as treasures, as gifts from our loving Heavenly Father who enriches life by the warmth and honor and respect and love you bestow upon one another, whether or not you get these things through your fellowship, you must resolve in your mind and heart that you will extend them.

It is only Jesus who can cause this kind of love to rise up within you; it is only Jesus who can allow your heart to extend these gifts to people who have disrespected you and betrayed you. But it is Jesus who first demonstrated this kind of love--extending love to the unlovely, to those who disdain the gift--and it is His example you must emulate when you meet with these people.

They may be awkward. They may be strained. They may be gracious. You will not know their heart, no matter how they project themselves to you because people are very accomplished at concealing their true heart, at masking their true intent. But that doesn't matter. It isn't them that you can control. It is only yourself you have the power to orient in the direction of unfeigned, godly love. It is this love, God's love that the Word tells us "covers a multitude of sins."

First, allow His love to cover you. Let yourself be bathed in the beautiful deliverance from any negative perception of yourself that may lurk deep within the recess of your heart. Allow His love to make you free in the essence of who you are, for it is there that He has transformed you.

Allow yourself to project WHO HE IS IN YOU to everyone around you, for it is Jesus who is important. If you project the fallen, broken distraught person you are because of sin’s claim on every man, you are allowing the worst aspect of your life to dominate your existence. If you project the pure, glorious Savior who dwells in your heart, then you are allowing HIM to dominate your existence. No matter how the people around you want to see you, let yourself require them to see you as who you are through Jesus, for that is the true you.

Second, allow His love to cover them. They may not have opened themselves to His love and they may not permit themselves to be conduits of His kindness but that is their problem, not yours. YOU must see them as blood-bathed children of the God who makes all things new. Love them as HE loves them. Be genuine. Be kind. Be joyful in their presence. You can do this because, "the joy of the Lord is your strength." Christ within you will empower you to pour His love through you. Then He will allow you to be strengthened in the inner man by the joy of being HIS child, who demonstrates the Master's heart to the lovely and to the unlovely.

Third, in so employing the character of Christ to the cold, bitter winter that has swirled around you and these people, you will bring Christmas--hope, joy, truth, faith, love--to bear upon a dismal time. No matter how they respond, no matter what they bring to the meeting, YOU will have brought the transformative love of Jesus into their midst and YOU will be blessed. If they allow themselves to partake in the blessing, they will be the richer for it.

The gifts you bear within you of forgiveness, kindness, warmth, joy, faith, love are true treasures. All else pales in comparison to the gift of Christ in you, of who He has made you by His love. If they receive it in love, they will be true Christmas angels. If they refuse it, you will simply have to sing, "Glory to God in the highest..." by yourself. Either way, it will be Christmas in you, no matter the season of the year or the circumstances you face, for HE HAS BEEN BORN IN YOU! God bless you and cause you to see yourself as HE sees you and to project yourself as His blood-washed child.