The Christmas spirit

Christmas is a season of love and one of the best ways to show that love is by giving.
I’m sure you have either read, watched or heard about Ebenezer Scrooge. A focal character in a Charles Dickens’ novel, A Christmas Carol which has been recounted quite a number of times over the years by other writers, story tellers and movie makers. In summary, Scrooge is a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas and the entire tale is of his redemption by the three ghosts of Christmas past. Sounds a little scary right? Well, after such a traumatic experience, Mr Ebenezer shifted from being the man who only cared about himself and his wealth to a man who cared about others.
I once read somewhere that you should give until people call you stupid and keep on giving even after that. Why? Because there are laws and principles which can never be broken regardless of what religion, race and any other differentiating factor that they may be. Give and it shall come back to you.
As human beings we like to acquire things, especially the finer things in life if we can afford them and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I don’t believe that there is any hard and fast rule on how to spend your earnings when you have worked very hard to get where you are however, I have realised that the best way to spend part of your hard earned cash is by giving someone or people who cannot repay you.
At church, we have a Christmas tradition where everyone brings a gift right before Christmas and on Christmas day everyone leaves with a gift from underneath the tree. This was nice but it wasn’t very effective as people brought all manner of things and generally we were not exactly meeting pressing needs until this year. We were given a list of items; 10 kg bags of rice, cartons of noodles, groundnut oil,
Christmas is a season of love and one of the best ways to show that love is by giving.
I’m sure you have either read, watched or heard about Ebenezer Scrooge. A focal character in a Charles Dickens’ novel, A Christmas Carol which has been recounted quite a number of times over the years by other writers, story tellers and movie makers. In summary, Scrooge is a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas and the entire tale is of his redemption by the three ghosts of Christmas past. Sounds a little scary right? Well, after such a traumatic experience, Mr Ebenezer shifted from being the man who only cared about himself and his wealth to a man who cared about others.
I once read somewhere that you should give until people call you stupid and keep on giving even after that. Why? Because there are laws and principles which can never be broken regardless of what religion, race and any other differentiating factor that they may be. Give and it shall come back to you.
As human beings we like to acquire things, especially the finer things in life if we can afford them and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I don’t believe that there is any hard and fast rule on how to spend your earnings when you have worked
canned tomatoes, milk and sugar. We were to bring these things not for ourselves but to be distributed to people in need of those things both within and without to make their Christmas a jolly good one.
Have you gone to the market lately and checked out the prices of food stuff and other things that people need to survive? The prices are through the roof and you are left wondering how 70% of Nigerians below the poverty line are surviving. This reminds me of a line in our primary school prayer which goes thus, ’Some can eat but have no food’. We have food and we have the means no matter how little give, we must give. Give to the extent that others would call you stupid. Give to people that cannot repay you, knowing in your heart that you are doing as commanded and your reward is in heaven because the truth is, no matter how much you acquire on this earth, you cannot take the riches beyond. Worldly possessions are for exactly that, the world. Bless those around you by giving this Christmas season and beyond.
Always remember, givers never ever lack.
Have a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.