“WITH THE FESTIVE SEASON JUST AROUND THE CORNER, LET THE BUDGETING BEGIN!” I saw this quote somewhere, written in bold letters. True enough, this is the period of the year when people all over the world are spending a lot of time to find the perfect Christmas gifts for their loved ones. It made me recall a moment as a child when my mother gave me a CD cassette player. I immediately clasped my mum with tremendous affection and expressed how grateful I was to receive that gift. I hastily tried it out, my face beaming with delight!! Next thing, I transformed into a deliriously elated kid dancing and singing all over the house! Out of uncontainable delight, I even hurriedly brought the CD cassette player outside our house to share my amusement with my cousins and friends. I also brought it to school, parks, the school gym and every place I went to! That memory contains a fundamental truth about our nature as human beings: when we receive a gift, we love to share it with others!

Think about what that means for you this Christmas: Jesus coming to this world is all about God’s grace and, definitely the greatest gift of all, so let’s share it with everyone!

Let’s carefully unwrap this most precious gift…God’s GRACE. Someone brilliant turned grace into an acronym that expresses its meaning: God’s Redemption At Christ’s Expense. Grace is based on God’s unmerited favour. God’s grace is unmerited favour because it is not a prize we get, we cannot buy it, and we cannot live good enough to get it. God’s love is not based on us but based on him. It is based on G-R-A-C-E: God’s Redemption At Christ’s Expense. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) but as we genuinely plead for forgiveness, we are made righteous through the blood of Christ. “We are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24) (Ephesians 2:8-9) Billy Graham said, “The Cross shows us the seriousness of our sin—But it also shows us the immeasurable love of God.”

In John 15:11 it says, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” As we depend solely on Christ, our joy becomes full.

Just as we want to share with others every time we receive a gift that we value or treasure, our joy in having a relationship with Christ can’t be contained, so we just can’t help but share it with everyone around us! Isn’t it true that if we don’t have the joy to share his ultimate gift, it is certainly because we haven’t totally grasped it’s worth?!

Christmas is one of the holidays where sharing Christ can be easier and more natural. It is a time of sharing food, spending time together and exchanging gifts. I encourage you all to take every opportunity to share Christ with others. Without a shadow of a doubt, THERE IS NO BETTER GIFT TO BE SHARED THAN THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS BECAUSE HE IS THE SOLE REASON FOR THE SEASON!!!