There’s a story from Luke 7:36-50 that I think sums up much of what our attitudes should be like on Christmas. Jesus goes to eat at a Pharisee’s house, and while there a “woman of the city, a sinner” comes to see him. She’s crying, and she’s wiping his feet with her hair and her tears, and she’s anointing his feet with the very expensive perfume she brought with her. The Pharisee is appalled and disgusted by this. How could Jesus let her even touch him! But Jesus tells the Pharisee what is really going on:
“Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
The generosity of the woman was the spillover of the gratitude of the forgiveness Christ had extended to her. The self-righteous Pharisee couldn’t see his own sin and felt he had no need for forgiveness and, thus, had no gratitude or generosity.
I’m guessing that most of us were rather generous yesterday, giving gifts to many friends and family members. Find some time today to simply discuss as a family some of the ways you are grateful for Christ in your life, how He has forgiven you and loved you even when you felt you didn’t deserve it. I think the more we focus on how much we’ve been forgiven, the more naturally generous and serving we become. And our hope is that Valley View would continue to grow as a church that is generous with the Gospel and our gifts all throughout the South End of Louisville.