Christmas: Appreciating The Gift Of Men

Introduction: 

Welcome my friend! 

It's good to join you on this penultimate Friday of the year; one that has come with good vibes and buzz as many of us look forward to Christmas, which is now three (3) days from today. 

Being a holiday season, we're excited for different reasons: the rest from the hassles of work, good food, drinks, fun concerts, parties, and all other kinds of activities that are consistent with this period. 

So in anticipation, we make our preparations, putting all the efforts we can, to make it worthwhile.

However, amidst all these, we lose sight of the true significance of Christmas, what it means for us as servants of God, and the lessons in his birth story. 

It's for this reason, that today's conversation is aimed at pointing us to the real things that matter in this season, outside of all the fun we've now associated it with. 

Discussion:

In a few days, we'll be celebrating Christmas, the day set aside to remember the birth of Jesus Christ.

This is in itself a proof of God's steadfastness as he kept his promise to send his son to die for our sins so that through believing in him we can be saved from destruction.

To achieve this, God the Father couldn't have come down here on earth with his son, so he employed the services of men here in it. 

We are therefore reminded that as we connect with family and friends or interact with other folks this period, that more than those wrapped presents, the presence of good men in our lives is important in fulfilling God's promises to us.

This means that instead of pushing people away with our intentionally built emotional walls or in some cases, our bad attitude, we can learn to gracefully establish genuine bonds with the right people that God has brought to play key roles in our lives. 

■ Recognising The Gifts Of Men 

From the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, we can see what good men can be for us, which is also what we should be for others as good servants of our master.

In this we recognise, those who availed themselves to the service of God as his words of sending the world a savior were being fulfilled. 

For the purpose of this discussion, we'll be referring to these services as their gifts even as we relate them to our normal real life interactions with others and the roles we can play in each other's life.

These people and their gifts include:

▪︎ Mary - Vessel Of His Work

The word of God made us understand that Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit through Mary his mother. 

The significance of this virgin birth reveals that Mary made herself an available instrument in God's hands, considered pure enough by his grace to birth his son. 

God does his work here on earth through human instruments; which is all of us who are willing to do his will. 

When we make a prayer request, God turns the heart of the men around us, using them to answer that prayer. 

It's the same way he puts in our hearts the thought of reaching out to someone and coming through for them.

For instance, for our business to succeed, God brings us more customers and clients upto the capacity we can serve. 

It's through this value exchange that he answers such requests. 

The first gift of men around us is that they're the means through which God will bless us, talk to us, or encourage us, and this is the basis of which other gifts are fulfilled. 

Such is the enormous role Mary played and today we're called to that responsibility, to make ourselves available for his service. 

▪︎ Joseph - Assistance And Support 

The privilege of having someone to lean on for support, assistance or collaboration is a blessing that lessens the burden of doing it alone.

Just like it didn't make much sense to stand by your virgin wife bearing a child, many times the will of God defiles logic such that those who lack the spiritual insight to discern it, will antagonize, ridicule or slander us for it. 

These are the trying times that we need the support of brethen to encourage, pray with, talk to, and draw strength from. 

God gave Joseph the spiritual insight required to stand by his wife, knowing that her conception was because she's an instrument of God's work. 

These are the kind of men we need in our lives and the man we should be for others. 

▪︎ The Inn Owner - Provision 

God can use other men to provide our needs as we can see in the case of the inn owner in this story.

When Mary and Joseph arrived their hometown for the census during which Jesus Christ was born, there was no space in the inn to accommodate them, so this owner availed his stable for them. 

It's in this lowly place that the humble Christ was born, and laid in a manger afterwards. 

A simple lesson that even when our wants our unmet (the inn), God can raise men to show up for us, giving us just what we need (a place to birth the saviour).

▪︎ The Shepherds - Recognition, Confirmation And Announcement 

Immediately after the birth of Jesus Christ, angels appeared to some sheperds and informed them of this special event that has happened just around them.

They went into the stable, recognised and worshipped him. An act that confirmed God's presence in all of this to Mary and Joseph.  

When they had done, they went about spreading the word to others.

God uses men to recognise our gift after we've been diligent with it for a period of time, learning and working our way into excellence and mastery. 

It's this men that will announce us to the world and it'll be our confirmation that God keeps his promises. 

On our own path too, we give this gift to those around us that are deserving of it, when we recommend them for promotions in work places or refer and advertise their businesses. 

▪︎ The Wise Men - Honour 

When God wants to honour a man, he'll cause honourable men to rise up and seek out for him, wherever he may be. 

When Jesus Christ was born, God honoured him by appearing to wise men who he led to bring him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 

Gifts worthy of his kingship. 

This shows that whether in the inn or stable, God can find a man worthy of his honour simply by virtue of being his son and accepting him wholeheartedly. 

Just as these men brought him these gifts, God uses other men to honour us and we should do same by paying due respect to those deserving of it in their character and conduct. 

■ Summary: 

Through the year, the hassles of business can keep us from interacting with family as much as we should. 

Other times, we're too far off that we don't share enough with each other to know how to be there for ourselves or express the solidarity that family should be for.

In this year's Christmas dinner we're encouraged to look to repair family ties through honest communication, understanding and empathy. 

We should also see the different roles that different people played in our story as an indicator that we can't all be the same.

Each family member will interact with us differently because they're unique in their own rights and expecting same of everyone will only lead to resentment and disappointment.

Since, the birth of Jesus Christ God gave us this gift of his salvation and we can show our appreciation by giving it back to him through service to the men around us. 

Master Apprentice.

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