Somebody mentioned “wallet”? Yes, we know exactly what they are really talking about. Our money. We use wallets to carry our money with us and take them out of our pockets or purses to pay for whatever is necessary. Very convenient for us, and something we guard carefully, since everyone who has lost their wallet, or had it stolen knows what a trouble that is!
During Christmas season most of us are busy “spending”, but the origination of this is not festivity or obligatory office or “Aunt Mabel” gifts. No. The origination of generosity at Christmastime is in the extravagant giving of Father God in Heaven. Jesus was the richest possession of the Father, as a son often is… but especially an only son. And this is what God the Father sent as His gift to us, His Son as a sacrifice for us.
We do not comprehend such extravagance. It makes no sense to our thinking, and we certainly would not make such a gift. We might open our wallet, and give a little of our excess, but certainly not the whole of our bank account and savings! Not our all!
This is how the Heavenly Father has loved us, the ones who wandered far away from him:
He emptied the treasure of Heaven and sent His Only Begotten Son.
When this happened the angels sang, with wonder and exultation, they shared this with the shepherds on the hilltops near the place where Jesus arrived in Bethlehem. After his birth, the star appeared and guided the wise men, and the wonder of the Christ began to unfold to us, in a history that we are now familiar with. And for some of us, it has become the most precious thing in our own possession, greater than any other imagined gift or inheritance, greater than any lottery win, greater than the wealth and abundance of any age or civilization.
And it is eternally ours.
Yet for some, it is their wallet and its paper contents that they most treasure.
What do we most value? What is in our spiritual wallets?
Sing the carol “What Child Is This?”
The Jesse tree ornament is the Lily.