Have you discovered items that you wanted to purchase for your children or grandchildren are hard to find? Impossible to find may be more like it! And because of the supply chain issues, you are unable to fulfill the request? I was discussing this issue with a good friend of mine and we talked about how we could address this with the children in our lives.

The sights, sounds and traditions of Christmas are so much fun to celebrate with family and, of course, we would not want to take away from some of those fun traditions. However, it got me thinking about how can we start to foster the true meaning of Christmas in the lives of our loved ones? How can we soften the commercial message of Christmas and develop a more biblical meaning for Christmas for our families?

Paul David Tripp had an excellent devotion on this very topic. He said “If you pay attention to the messaging of our culture, Christmas has become a season focused on the acquisition of created ‘stuff’. Isn’t that a blatant contradiction to the gospel message? The glory of Advent is that the Creator himself becomes a man to rescue us from our bondage to the creation.” He continues by saying “Here we are indulging in Christmas in a way that reveals our hearts are still prone to worship and idolize the created.”

Then he had some practical tips to help you refocus your family on the true meaning of Christmas:

He said to start early. He said you cannot start early enough or tell the Christmas story often enough. “Don’t wait until Christmas Eve to talk about our need for the birth of Christ.”
Stay Focused. So even though we are super busy in the month of December, he reminds us to be certain to return to the gospel story “at evert opportunity, every day.”
Read Christmas scripture. Read the Christmas story in Luke. It is a goal of mine this year to read a chapter of Luke (and I started on December 1st) every day. Since there are 24 chapters, you finish on Christmas Eve! Just in time to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
He recommends that you attend a performance of Handel’s Messiah.
Emphasize the spiritual over the material. This is exactly where our supply chain issues may affect us this year regarding those difficult to find gifts. I always find that if you get your child to start thinking about a gift he or she can give someone they might learn to take the focus off of themselves and think about others. You can get involved in things like packing a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child, or sponsoring a family from an angel tree. It is fun to involve the children in purchasing the gifts as well as wrapping the gifts.
His final suggestion was to look for opportunities to give and serve. “Identify someone in need, and identify someone lonely. Jesus came because God cares about isolated, desperate, lonely people and so should we. Find opportunities to give these people gifts - not merely physical items, but the gift of your time, presence and encouragement.” This would be a great way to involve a child in your life so that they can see the real blessing that comes when you are able to serve someone else and be the hands and feet of Jesus.