Well, it seems that the Christmas season is upon us.  Given the pandemic, it promises to be very different.

     I'm happy for the season.  I'm happy for what it commemorates, for what it remembers.  I'm thankful for the opportunity to think afresh about things beyond us.

     About transcendence made known.

     I'm also thankful for the occasion to consider, once more, how the Christmas season should cause us to examine what we are doing with our money.  Unless we make this season about giving, that is, giving to others--and I am not talking about people we know--we've missed the point.
 

     Thinking about the congregations in Macedonia many years ago, the apostle Paul observed that, "According to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participating in the support of their brethren" (2 Corinthians 8:3-4).

     Consider:  these people didn't wait to be asked to give; they instead begged for the opportunity to give. Moreover, they gave beyond what anyone thought they could give.  They understood that, "God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed" (9:8).
     If God is there--and he is--we can never give enough.
     Let the retailers worry about what we should get.  Let us rather concern ourselves with what we can give.  As you go forth into the season, realize that it's no challenge to "get."  We can always do that.  The far greater challenge is to give.
     Life is a gift; give of it freely.