Whose birthday is it?

Our family had a great conversation last night as a result of one of our advent devotions. My son asked quite unexpectedly, "Hey Mom, if Christmas is Jesus' birthday then why do we get presents? Shouldn't we be giving Jesus the gifts?"

Well, you would think so wouldn't you? After all, we are all the recipients of gifts on our birthdays- often many, many, many gifts. So why, on the anniversary of the greatest birthday of all, should we shirk the celebrant and still give ourselves the gifts? In the way that only a five year old can, my son brought to light a very important part of this season that we seemed to be missing.

So we talked about it. "What kinds of gifts might Jesus like for his birthday?" we asked ourselves. After we got past a few of the more immediate responses (my daughter thought he'd like a princess and my son a Transformer), we decided that since Jesus teaches us to love one another, it might be a good gift for Him if we did something(s) to help other people.

Our children are already required to give 10% of their weekly earnings to a charity of their choice, and they've made some great choices in the past including giving that money to the church, to our local animal shelter, etc. But it felt like we needed to go beyond what we normally do in order to commemorate our Savior's birth in a special way. So... what to do, what to do?

We decided to sleep on it, after some discussion. After I put the kids to bed I was checking email and my favorite blogs when I came across this quote at Monkey Munch: 

“And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me."

  Matthew 18:5

They have decided to sponsor a child through World Vision as a present to Christ, and it seems like a pretty good idea to us too! I've also talked to a few families who are giving cows, wheelbarrows, chickens, etc. through Heifer International in the same spirit.

No matter what your family chooses to give Christ for his birthday, I urge you to take a moment to consider it during this very busy season. I believe that we give to Christ in the spirit of simply giving gifts to one another, but perhaps we can all reach out a little past our circle of friends and family this Christmas in Jesus' name to help those who need our gifts most.

What do you do in your family to give a birthday gift to Christ?
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