Plan Ahead for Christmas Outside the Box

Before the bustle of the coming holidays and Christmas rush consumes our time, now would be an opportune moment for us to pause and look ahead for opportunities to seize that time in order to share Christ with another. How often are we given such a favorable time?

Most of our attention during this Season is focused inside the box, inside the four walls of our church and our home. We rejoice in sharing Christmas through our church programs and presents; through worship and family gatherings.

Many churches follow the Advent calendar, seeking to prepare our hearts to celebrate Jesus’ birth, the Incarnation, the Light of the world.

What would this Christmas look like if every follower of Jesus Christ prepared his heart to share this Story with one other person who is outside the box?…with someone who needs Good News?…with someone on the fringe of Christianity?…with some friend or co-worker or acquaintance who does not know Christ?

Such an event would be an amazing display of His lights in this world!

Such an event seems impossible, certainly improbable! But it begins in each place with one person at a time. Let it be you no matter what others may do.

Prepare your heart. Pray and seek God to guide you to that person. Prepare to open the conversation. Perhaps a Christmas book or video or cd can be the conversation starter. Pray for God to guide you and to open the door.

Then, make a commitment to God to do it. And ask fellow Christians to pray for you in this endeavor. Trust in His strength and wisdom, not your own. Leave the results in His hands. All that any of us can do is to simply sow the Seed, give the Bread, and leave it in God’s hands as we remain open to whatever way He chooses to use us in this.

In this busy time of preparing for winter or for holidays or for travel and with so many heavy burdens, it would be easy for any of us to give up on such an idea.

But what if God had given up before that first Christmas?