Under no obligation …

We say “Christmas is a stressful time of year” but that’s not technically correct.

There’s nothing about the holiday itself that’s stressful, it’s what we make of the holiday and how we observe it that creates the stress we experience.

Take, for example, giving gifts.

Many people who find themselves with already tight budgets for what they can spend on gifts for a narrow number of people find themselves thinking (if not praying!), “Please don’t let anyone beyond these people give me gifts so that I have to buy for them as well.”

Then your neighbor drops by … with a Christmas gift for you.

Now you feel obligated to go buy a Christmas gift for your neighbor.

At work the next day, a co-worker drops by your cubicle … with a Christmas gift for you.

Now you feel obligated to buy a Christmas gift for your co-worker.

On the weekend, a long lost cousin you haven’t seen in years suddenly shows up on your doorstep because they happen to be in town … and his arms are loaded with Christmas gifts for you and your entire family.

Now you feel obligated to buy a Christmas gift for your cousin … and his entire family.

You’re thinking worship service at church will be a time to calm your holiday anxieties when a friendly church member approaches you after service … with a Christmas gift for you.

That’s right, now you feel obligated to go buy a Christmas gift for them.

Just about any Christmas season, you may have received unexpected Christmas gifts from people you never imagined had you on their shopping list. But they did, and you received their gracious gift, and you’re stressed even more now as you see your Christmas budget blow up from having to spend on gifts you feel obligated to buy and give.

That really isn’t the spirit of Christmas, is it?

The original Christmas is so astounding to us because God freely gave to the world His most precious “possession” — His only Son — as a Savior.

And He was under no obligation to do so.

Far from any hint of “obligatory kindness,” Christmas was a perfect, holy expression of pristine love:

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life,” John 3:16.

Not only was God not under any obligation to give the world a Savior, He gave the priceless gift of His Son to those who were His enemies:

“For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son,” Romans 5:10.

It can be a stressful thing to give out of a sense of obligation; it’s a remarkably beautiful thing to give — freely, graciously, and generously — without obligation.

That’s how God gives, and we call it Christmas.

Scotty