A Season of Generosity
Greetings! I hope your Christmas season, thus far, has been (mostly) filled with joy, peace, and hope. I know that for some, this season is a difficult one – between grief, family drama, conflict, and other challenging circumstances. Please let me know how I can be praying for you.
During the Christmas season, where we celebrate God emptying himself to be born in human flesh, I am reminded of the great generosity with which He has treated each of us. Remember Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 8:9 –
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
It’s true. At Christmas, we remember and celebrate God “becoming poor” for us. And it is He who we follow.
It’s why Christmas is a season where we are invited to be generous, like He has been with us.
And so tonight, we are provided with an opportunity to follow Him in being generous – during our Christmas Connect shopping night. If you don’t know what that is, it is an opportunity for us to shop and purchase Christmas gifts for three Monmouth County families who are not able to buy gifts themselves this year. It’s a great local program, run by Love Thy Neighbor. It’s something that I’ve participated in for about 20 years now (with my family, friends, and other churches), and each year, it is a blessing to be a blessing to others. It’s a great opportunity to serve our ‘neighbors’, and teach our children the value and gift of generosity (it’s really neat when they get to shop for other kids their age!).
I’d love for you to join us tonight at Target in Middletown at 6PM to shop.
If we have time afterwards, we’ll come back to Central and start to wrap together. If not, we may be asking for your help to wrap this week!
This year, we’ll be shopping for three families. One is a family of two in Keansburg, and the others are families of five in Red Bank and in Matawan. All in all, we’ll be shopping for 12 people this Christmas. We’ve already raised some money for this, but seeing as we hope to spend $150-200 per person – please don’t forget to bring some cash to chip in!