It is less than a week until Christmas.  No, I’m not cooking a turkey.  There are far too many other food options to mess up and ruin than to try a turkey again.  Maybe I should leave the cooking up to my wife.  Still, even if I can’t cook a turkey, there are so many other things to get ready for, aren’t there?  

There are presents to buy.  There are presents to wrap.  There are cookies to make.  There are cards to send.  Some still need to finish buying the things for Christmas dinner (no, I haven't learned that lesson yet).  Isn’t there always that last-minute gift that you forgot to get for your long-lost relative on the way to the family get-together?  Gas stations still sell gift cards, right?

I suppose that 2020 seemed to lessen the hustle and bustle a little.  We aren’t supposed to run to and fro like crazy people this year.  We are supposed to social distance.  We wear masks, I get it.  Many of the festivities were put on hold, canceled, or tamed down in some way.  But it would be impossible to have the greatest season of the year come and go without a celebration.  Isn’t that we all get excited for?  Isn’t there an endless list of super-important things to remember for this week?  Don’t we have to make a list and check it twice?  Don’t we have to run ourselves ragged trying to finish every detail so that Christmas is done right?

Today, my eyes were opened.  

Maybe having these things ready isn’t the only thing that’s important after all.

My wife and I were asked to participate in a Christmas outreach today.  A local friend and minister was putting together their annual Christmas gift to the community and wanted us to be involved.  She was lining up people to give testimonies during the time when a hot cooked meal and presents for kids would be passed out.  She even lined up a sighting of Jesus praying for Santa Clause.

As the outreach would put food in people’s bellies, it would also put spiritual food in people’s soul.  Though it was short notice, aren’t we instructed to always be ready to give an account for what we believe?  1 Peter 3:15 makes this clear: “honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” Yes, it was short notice, but yes, we were totally in.  It is exciting to share one’s faith.  I love the chance to be able to tell others what Christ did in me.  After all, I’m just a simple man with a good story of God, one too good to keep to myself.  We jumped at the opportunity.

I had never helped with this outreach before. That was made very clear to me as things began to unfold.

Let me make myself clear.  I’ve been on many mission trips.  I’ve seen some pretty crazy things.  I’ve seen dirt poor places where homes are stuck together with garbage.  I’ve seen unhealthy living conditions in which people had no choice but to toughen up and hope for the next day.  I’ve been to places so far removed from the life we know, places with societies that weren’t even based off of money.  How fascinating to see a culture that didn’t have any money, didn’t need it, and didn’t seem to want it when I was in the Amazon Rainforest. I have seen people bathing their kids, washing their dishes, and washing their clothes all in the same place.  But isn’t that somewhere else in the world?

Isn’t that the illusion that traps us sometimes?

Do we really have to travel halfway across the world to find people with needs?

Sitting by the heater in a one room outreach center, my eyes widened in awe.

Though Covid wanted to stop things, Jesus had other ideas.  Slowly but surely, people began to trickle through the doors.  Take-home plates of food were made so they could be served at home- a hot meal to feed their families.  Kids began to filter in, bright and starry eyed when they saw that there were presents to be handed out.  I watched those with health conditions.  I saw those who weren’t dressed in the newest fashions.  I saw people who looked like they just got out of bed. Some had that hollow look in their eyes, that same look that I had seen in other countries, the unfortunate who were living on dead-end streets.  Some I imagined didn’t have parents to look over them.  Some, had parents that were most likely at their wit’s end.  Many kids came in appearing to be street kids. Did such a thing exist in my neighborhood?

Silent, I watched.  Humbled, God broke my heart.  I had not purchased a ticket nor stepped onto a plane.  There was no planning for months on the strategies of how to reach people from other lands.  I gazed over a room full of servants- those passing out the basic needs of life.  I gazed over the same room of receivers- those thankful for what they had been given.  I sat by the table of presents for the kids.  How hard it was to watch!  A volunteer passed giftbags out to waiting and eager arms.  I wasn’t sure if she could look into the eyes of the people receiving the gifts or not, but I watched intently from my vantage point.  Empty eyes glowed.  Hollow eyes couldn’t believe there was so much to hand out.  They were the eyes of children brightened by just a simple act of kindness- ones I doubt would get much more this Christmas season.

Yes, we gave our testimony.  My wife and I have a unique story to tell the world.  We’ve been in the highs and lows of life, and Jesus has carried us through it all.  To look around a room and see attentive looks, not for anything about ourselves, but about how a God brought us through, was more a blessing to me than what I figured I was giving to them.  But isn’t that what we all want to hear?  A story of hope?

I sat back down.  I mused over the event.  My heart had cracked open for the people that had come.

I had no idea what conditions were like right here in a neighborhood so close to home.

It changed me.

There are many things that I wish for you as we head into Christmas 2020.  Yes, I wish you peace, joy, a full and satisfied life.  I bring good tidings of great joy, the same news that shepherds once heard on that quiet, starry night.  But do you know what?  I’d be remiss if I left it at that.  I found out today that there are too many people right here in our own backyard that desperately need a helping hand.  Many don’t have the finances to make a Christmas merry and bright.  Some don’t have good health.  Some have lost jobs.  Some have lost loved ones this past year, and it is their first Christmas without them.  

Remember Christ’s words?  The ones we will hear in the end?  At the judgment, at the end of the age, when all the remaining saints of God are ready to step into glory, do you remember what Jesus says?

Matthew 25:37-40

“Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

This Christmas, I would have terrible remiss if the holiday came and went and I didn’t challenge you and I alike to get up and do something for the world around us.  You don’t need a plane ticket to be a missionary.  You don’t need to speak a different language to make a difference. There is already too much cultural divide right here in our own towns; you don’t have to go far to find it.

This Christmas, why not make a difference for someone else.  Isn’t that what it’s all about anyhow?  Make an extra space on the gift buying list for someone you don’t even know.  Drop off a gift at a doorstep.  Serve in an outreach program.  Make someone a meal.  The list is endless, and the possibilities run in an infinitely positive direction.

I challenge you this Christmas to look past the lights, gifts, decorations, all the hustle and bustle of everything you are doing for those you love.  This year, I’m asking you to spread it further.  Let’s love on another.  Let’s make someone else’s Christmas bright.  In the shadow of what 2020 wants to face us with, let’s burn bright, making it the best Christmas for someone yet.

Unknowingly, just as I was, you might just be the one who receives the greater blessing.

If God can do it with me, he will do it for you.

Merry Christmas.