Christmas denied? What a horrible thought! And I would encourage you that is all it needs to be – a horrible thought. It does not have to be a reality.

“But I am out of work. I have no money,” some may say, who see the everyday realities of rising prices and loss of employment. While these everyday realities might be very painful, comfort and peace can be found in the unseen, eternal realities.

One might well ask, “Comfort and peace from where?”

And I am sure many a Jew was asking themselves that question nearly 2000 years ago when they had to uproot themselves and return to their ancestor’s town or city in order to be counted and taxed by a foreign power determined to control as much of its known world as possible. And if that was not bad enough, the average Jew had to submit to religious leaders, many of whom were just as scandalous, if not more scandalous, as some of our religious leaders today.

Yet, a child was born – not because a man and a woman came together, but because God in His merciful love so decreed it, so that One might come to offer to the human race a fresh start, — a start free from sin.

Though the Child grew up amidst the realities of human frailty, injustice, greed, hatred and more, as a man, so acquainted with sorrow and grief, He graciously spoke of His heavenly Father’s love for all men, and adjured His hearers not to focus upon the material world, but upon the Majesty of God and the glory of His image within each person, including themselves.

So it was with great gladness as His listeners heard Him say that their heavenly Father would meet their basic needs. Many people today do not even know what are their basic needs, as items once thought of as luxuries and conveniences have crept their way into many of our minds deceptively veiled as absolute necessities.

Just as deceptive is the idea that we as a parent, spouse, friend, or co-worker must give something tangible in order to make Christmas, Christmas, otherwise we have failed – as if Christmas depends upon us.

We are not God. The idea of Christmas was birthed to mark the fact that God, in the fullness of time, intervened in the wayward course of man so that He Himself might become the Way. This is the foundation of what we celebrate as Christmas, that Almighty God in His tender mercy provided the only Way for man to escape the clutches of sin, its symptoms like greed and lust, and its final end of eternal damnation.

So the Christ had no permanent place to lay His head, chose to live without material wealth, and was a target for ridicule and hatred. Nevertheless, instead of being embittered by such inequities, He taught those whose plight He shared that there was far more value in the two mites a widow gave in an offering with love and dedication than what the well-to-do had donated with improper motives.

Likewise, the King of the Earth took the time to embrace a child, humbled Himself to touch an infected leper, and forgave those who had sinned against Him. All of that cost Him no money, but it did cost Him His life so it can be made real and active in our lives –and that is priceless.

Right now you might be penniless and jobless, and you might even feel worthless. Yet great worth and treasure can be found in the Christ, of Whom Christmas is about, if we truly make Him our King.

Even those that reject Him as their King can still find some comfort and peace, for each of us are made in His image. And though you might be without money, a job, or even a home, you are not without prayer. You can, and should, ask God to show you what you, and only you, can give from within.

“The only gift is a portion of thyself,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. Surely, since we are made in the image of God, can we not give to others our time, comfort, service, encouragement, forgiveness and more?

And, as the Master taught, these gifts from our heart which we can freely bestow upon others cannot be stolen, unlike tangibles such as money and gifts.

Christmas denied? May there be a chorus of a million nays! For if we look in our hearts with the help of God, we will find we can have and give His Christmas in many ways.