Christmas Generosity

Why do we struggle with generosity that doesn't add up the way we would like it to? As I think about Christmas over the next few days, I realize that God was very generous with the news about his son's coming to earth - he just wasn't generous with the people we would expect. Shepherds, young couples, foreign kings, old men.

In the era of instant information, we think ideas are only as valuable as the importance of the people who know them. But is this really true? Was the Christmas story less important becuase the emperor wasn't told?

Ideas are shared with those who will accept them and use them wisely. Those are not always the ones we expect. Christmas has a wonderful lesson about generosity for us - God rewards his revelations to those whose hearts are open to his words.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Interesting . . . sometimes I feel frustrated when I don't recieve certain information. Maybe I am not the right recipient, i don't know.
12:45 PM
Anonymous said…
I love the truly 'brilliant' content storage and distribution system God used to reveal the birth of his Son to those foreign magi - a STAR. Some people think the star led the magi to Bethlehem, but it didn't. It led them to Jerusalem where the teachers of the law had to research Scripture for the next step. The blending of general revelation (nature) with specific revelation (Scripture) to accurately lead the Wise Men is fascinating. Later the star appeared again in Bethlehem. Not only was God generous and unpredictable with the types of people he told, he used whatever method worked for them. The Magi didn't have access to Hebrew Scriptures; they had access to stars. Ergo, the famous Star "of Bethlehem" entered history.
10:26 AM
Anonymous said…
That is a great observation. Generosity doesn't require that a person use the format we are most comfortable with. Generosity must seek out the format that people will be most open to. That can apply to so much of our sharing.
6:52 AM
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