Is your Christmas shopping finished? Millions of people are still scrambling this week and next to find the perfect gifts for the people on their lists. While gift-giving has become a beloved Christmas tradition, shopping and making wish lists also can distract us from preparing our hearts and minds for Christ. If we aren’t careful, we might find that buying stuff and getting stuff have become more important to us than Christ. LinC talks about how we can stay focused on Jesus during this Advent and Christmas season and how Jesus frees us from the sin of materialism. Key Scriptures: Isaiah 40:18-23; 44:9-20; Luke 12:13-21; Revelation 3:14-22. Next Sunday morning hundreds of millions of people will give and receive hundreds of millions of gifts. Many of these gifts will be loved and cherished. Some will be returned. And others will be regifted—left unused and unopened until the next gift-giving occasion when they are passed along to someone else. Our families and loved ones give us presents at Christmas and on our birthdays. LinC reminds us that the Holy Spirit blesses us with gifts all the time. The Spirit gives us talents and abilities and love and patience and hope and countless other gifts that we can use in service of God and others. And unlike the size-too-small sweater from the aunt you see once a year, the Spirit’s gifts aren’t to be returned or regifted.
