IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE

I was on the internet Christmas shopping at one of my favorite fine department stores. I could not get on their website because it was down. I thought to myself, “Could their website be overloaded with consumers like myself and the website is down because of it?” I wasn’t sure because I am not a computer technician. I searched other websites and the experience was the same. I eventually was able to shop on a nice website online. I knew that COVID-19 had prevented many people, like myself, not to go Christmas shopping in the stores but to shop online for better safety.

It is very easy to feel blasé about this holiday Christmas season because of this virus that has harmed so many of God’s people. I, too, started to feel blasé and a touch of melancholy due to the impact of the virus on loved ones and the updates of the horrific news reports. It’s heartbreaking. It took my husband and I, Kent, a little longer to put up our Christmas decorations indoors and outdoors. We simply struggled with the fact of daily numbers of coronavirus victims were increasing to a high totality. I persevered because of the spiritual meaning of Christmas. I became inclined and motivated to begin our holiday decorating. The Christmas tree and the lights inside turned out magnificent and blessed! Now my husband has to continue decorating outdoors, that’s what he normally does.

Kent put up the decorative wreaths on our windows with beautiful red bows and I draped the front door with a lovely, festive Christmas wreath. Kent and I, however, have not put up Christmas lights outdoors. My husband and I stopped here and paused for a moment because of our spirits once again reflected on the rising of the victims of COVID-19. Somehow this Christmas was too much to bear for our nation, the United States of America, and all nations that have been impacted by this pandemic. As we looked at one another in wonder, it occurred to us that the last celebration of Christmas is giving. It was all about giving.

I looked at my husband, Kent, as we were taking our Sunday evening drive and I said to him, “Kent, darling, we haven’t sent our Christmas cards as of yet” and he said, “There is still time.” And he smiled and I smiled because we knew that was the beginning of giving. As I looked at the road ahead as my husband was driving I started to feel a sense of relief and then I started to ponder on all of the Christmas gifts that we had purchased online that are on their way to our loved ones. I got so excited once again and my heart started to palpitate; giving!

You see Kent and I are accustomed to going to the mall to do our Christmas shopping, seeing the beautiful tall Christmas trees, and happy shoppers like ourselves. It is still a factor to shop in the malls but with the caution of wearing a mask. It just took away the cheer. However, we still saw that the blessing was still there in giving, whether you shopped in the malls with your masks or online without your masks. The blessing of giving is nothing to be compared to.

There is nothing in this world that can be compared to the miraculous gift of giving. It is truly more blessed to give than to receive said our Lord Jesus. Receiving a gift is absolutely wonderful with the anticipation of opening our gifts, not knowing what’s inside of the decorative covered box. As one opens their gift, the giver stands by watching with excitement knowing what’s inside hoping and praying, “Please Lord, I hope that they will like it.” The glee in the recipient’s face is captured in the lens of your eyes forevermore. Then you hear a shout or hands lifted up, or a sigh of relief as the gift is unwrapped and their eyes are lifted up at your eyes with an eternal light from their very souls that says, “Thank you.”

And you say to yourself, “I did it! I did it! They really liked my gift. Oh, what joy!” There is a mark on your inner man that somehow you know that God in heaven is pleased with your giving. Nothing can out beat the blessing of giving. Jesus made this perfectly clear in the Bible that it is more blessed to give than to receive because it causes God’s people to feel the most amazing effect and aftermath of giving which is the marvelous encounter of being blessed. The recipient is blessed by receiving the gift and the giver is blessed more so by giving. When you give a gift to someone, like a pair of cashmere socks, or a paid round-trip ticket to Fiji, small or large the blessing of giving cannot be recompense (paid back) because of its interventional divine miracle of God himself in heaven.

This is the season for giving and miracles from heaven. There is no better time on earth to give to those in need than the Christmas season. It is the perfect time to give a loved one a beautiful gift as simple as a fuzzy pair of cozy slippers or a food basket to the needy or poor. Christmas time is always the best time to help the poor. Everyone wants a turkey on their table for the holidays. Let us all give to the poor, especially with the loss of jobs during this pandemic. There are local food banks that we can give to or give our services as volunteers. There is a need, let us all help the poor.

Apostle Paul reminds us all in THE ACTS in the Bible said let us not forget the word of the Lord, Jesus when He said it is more blessed to give than to receive. Jesus made it very clear in the word that when we give we will be more blessed than the receiver. When we give to the needy and to the poor or give to our loved ones to bring joy to their hearts God will supernaturally give it back to you through the hands of other men (mankind) so much that the blessing of abundance that will return to you will run over! It is a promise from our Lord Jesus Christ, God himself. Therefore, when we give to others God himself will, through other men, give it back to us so much that it will overflow. So you see, it is more blessed to give than receive. There’s nothing in this world that will move God’s heart more than when we give to His people, especially to the poor and the needy, and to bring cheer and joy through giving.

Yes, beloved, tonight Kent and I will put the candles in the windows below the red bow decorative wreaths. The flickering candle will shine once again in our windows. The sweet Holy Spirit has reminded us all, once again, that COVID-19 or no COVID-19, the light still shines forevermore and nothing will stop us from showing the love of God through giving to help the poor and the needy and to bring cheer and joy into one’s heart. The light in our hearts will shine to the world in this season of love and giving and the candlelit light in our windows will remind us and the world that the greatest gift that was ever given is the light of the world Jesus Christ. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Merry Christmas! Amen.

“I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive” (ACTS 20:35).

“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” (LUKE 6:38).

Glory Be To God,

Reverend Helen Trower