Today is Christmas Eve and we celebrate the fourth week of Advent and the focus is on Love. Love is the most precious gift of all.
Yes, love is about giving. Someone asked me last year why I give presents at Christmas. I was stunned. Giving is love in action. Giving shows I care and am thinking about you. Giving is getting out of my selfishness and into your desires, wants, and needs. Giving is about pleasing someone else.
Love is what God showed us when he gave us the gift of his precious only son - Jesus, the Christ, so that we could see what Love truly looks like in human terms.
Love comes in different forms. Love can be shown by giving forgiveness, kindness, generosity, mercy, and understanding. Love listens, shares, trusts, and touches not just the flesh but the heart as well. Love is spending time with. Love knows no limits. Love is sacrificial, not self-centered. Love endures and hopes. Love believes all things and is pure. Love is loving the unlovely. Love, as it says in 1st Cor 13, never fails.
Who can you show love to this Christmas Eve? Is there an unwed mother, like Mary, who needs shelter or a place to stay? A weary traveler who needs a hot meal? A baby who might need clothes? Or perhaps a stranger or orphan who has no family of his or her own?
Yes, love is a gift and it truly is the most special gift of all. Today, I wish you the gift of love and if you don't know the Savior, Jesus, the Messiah, then I invite you to invite him into your heart this day. Let the love of God warm the cockles of your heart, melt away the cold, the bitterness, the fear and the hurt that has been there for way too long. You, too, can enjoy the warm and comforting presence of a dear and close friend every minute of the New Year because you will have the best friend of all, Jesus.
Wishing you and yours a year full of the gifts of Christmas: Hope, Peace, Joy and Love because truly Christ is with us! Merry Christmas to all of you.
Ariel Paz
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