By the Way: On giving

By Medicine Hat News on November 18, 2017.

Well it is here! The time is at hand for the Christmas shopping season Nov. 24 is Black Friday followed quickly by its online counterpart Cyber Monday. Soon the malls will be full, and kids will be amped up. Soon we will be baking and hosting and enjoying or perhaps tolerating the office Christmas party.

Here at Fifth Avenue Memorial we have got a jump on the season of giving. For the last few weeks we have been inviting our members to consider how to support their church in our annual Stewardship campaign. We have asked them to consider how they support us financially, but we also have asked and explored the other things they can offer to their church. We have so many talented people in our church and we have impressed on them we don’t just need money. We also need leadership, vision, compassion, we need time and we need talents and most importantly we need hope.

My prayer for us all in this busy season is that we will not just think about value of gifts and the crowds and the parking and all of that stuff. I hope that we will think about the big picture of what it means to prepare for Christmas. That Christ is alive and comes again to Herald God’s love and the Hope of the Holy Spirit.

I also pray that you will consider different ways of giving than simply stuff. Don’t discount the gift of extra time on the tobogganing hill with the kids. Delight in helping a neighbour shovel snow. Open your home for a gathering of friends. Say “I love you” and “thank you” often. Resolve to do these things now, and they will be easier when the rush of Christmas hits. Perhaps, if we start the practice of kindness, and trust and forgiveness and grace before Christmas, we might just continue them well into the New Year.

So as you give gifts this Christmas way you also receive the understanding that it is not always about the amount you spend, or the time things take but it is about the understanding why. That is that God loves us all and has given us the greatest gift the world has know Jesus who comes as a child but grows to be our Prophet, Priest, and King!

Rev. Dave Pollard is minister at Fifth Avenue Memorial United Church.

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