The most admirable and simple definition By Paul about Christmas is as below:-

“II Cor 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. “

To understand this concept very clearly we must approach this in a practical manner. Let us assume that you want to make someone rich and you had emptied all your bank account and deposited it in that person’s account. But still you find him poor and living a miserable life. What does it mean? Why is the person whom you had helped still poor? There may be many reasons for this. Categorically, these reasons can be put under three major heads:-

(i) Ignorance:- This is one clear reason for the poverty of that person. Either you should have informed him or should have arranged some sort of instrument to educate him about this deposit. When he is made aware of his riches then only he will claim it and cherish in it.

(ii) Fear factor:- In this the person is aware of his richness but unable to own it because of fear. What will happen if I own it? Whether the persons’ relatives will create a problem for him because of his new found wealth. What will others think? Till the time he bothers about others and their views, he cannot cherish his riches.

(iii) Doubts unlimited:- How is it possible? Why did he give this wealth to me? In turn would he expect something from me which I may not be able to give or does he want to prove himself as a great person. As he is rich, does he want to show people that I am poor or is he trying to highlight my incapability and so on.

In all the above possibilities, we can see that the wealth was not utilised and stagnated. But Bible says God because of His Love towards mankind gave everything to us.

Jn 3: 16 – “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

And His purpose is to pass on this precious gift – His Son – to all mankind through us. But as we have seen in the above illustration we too are reluctant to inherit this gift because of the above three reasons. The Father gave the Son, the Son gives the Spirit, the Spirit gives us life and so the gift goes on….

If we don’t inherit it, the question of passing on the gift does not arise. How to inherit this precious gift? In the above illustration, that person has to go to bank and operate his account to inherit the riches. In the same way, one must humble oneself to operate the faith to claim this precious gift. (Phil 2:8) `And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross.’

In the given illustration, the main reason for the person not obtaining the riches is a problem in understanding the person who passed on his riches The same way, our understanding about our Father who gave His Son is also incomplete.

For a complete understanding of the love of our Father, Grace of His Son and the fellowship of the Spirit we must humble ourselves. Only if we humble ourselves we can identify the good deeds of others. Else we may not understand the real essence or purpose of one’s good deed towards us. If this kind of attitude persists we are not only going to miss His blessings in this earth but also may miss out on priceless Salvation.

In this Christmas season let us humble ourselves to inherit this precious gift of Jesus Christ given to us by our Father. If we do so, we can pass Him on to all mankind. The Father gave the Son, the Son gives the Spirit, the Spirit gives us life and so the gift goes on….