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Published: Dec. 23, 2020, 9 a.m.

The best Christmas gift we can give to someone, and ourself, is to be with people in community. That\u2019s what God did in giving us Jesus.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 83. It is the last one in our series on Relationships at Christmas.

One Word to Describe Christmas

If someone were to ask you for one word to describe the meaning of Christmas, what word would you pick? Presents? Family? Joy? Jesus?

Listen in to today\u2019s episode where I interview a missionary friend, Josephine, who is serving in eastern Europe. She is single and lives alone 5,000 miles from home here in the US.

Out of security concerns because of where she lives, I don\u2019t call her by her real name. Instead, I call her \u201cJosephine\u201d because that was my grandmother\u2019s name who lived in this part of the world until she was 18 and emigrated to the United States. She\u2019s been dead for many years, but I have fond memories of her.

In my conversation with this Josephine, she gives her answer to the one word that sums up the meaning of Christmas for her. The word she picked may surprise you. So let\u2019s listen in\u2026.\xa0 [14:33 interview with \u201cJosephine\u201d]

I loved the word Josephine picked to sum up the meaning of Christmas: \u201cEmmanuel - God with us.\u201d

A Christmas Gift of Honor

And wasn\u2019t that a great story about those 30 local east European musicians who wanted to honor Josephine, by honoring the holiday that means so much to her?

They did this because she had invested in her relationship with them by honoring their music that she had to learn by ear, as difficult as it was. It reminds me of the verse in Romans 12: 10, \u201cTake delight in honoring each other.\u201d Honor begets honor.

Josephine\u2019s take on the shepherds in the Christmas story also struck me. They were rural, agrarian herdsman, who came into town to be WITH people so very different from themselves.

Josephine concludes by saying she didn\u2019t just watch Christmas from afar, and feel it inside, she actually lived it out by being WITH people in community, different from her, just as God did through his son Jesus who came to be WITH us.

The one thing I hope you remember from today\u2019s episode

Christmas is not to be celebrated alone in your pajamas. Instead, the best Christmas gift we can give each other is to be with people in community, some of whom may be different from you. For when we celebrate Christmas with others, we\u2019ll discover we\u2019re not as different from one another as we may think.

A few suggestions for our own relationships in response to today\u2019s episode

We can follow Josephine\u2019s example and honor someone at Christmas by extending ourselves to be with people in community,\xa0 like God did when he sent his son Jesus to be WITH us.

Another thing is to reflect upon the past year, Covid and all, to recall God being WITH us. And then to thank him for that. If nothing comes to mind, just ask him to remind us. More good things have happened to us during this pandemic than we realize. It's a Christmas gift we can give to ourselves.

As always, another thing you can do is let me and your fellow listeners know what resonated with you about today\u2019s episode. You can share your thoughts in the \u201cLeave a Reply\u201d box at the bottom of the show notes, or you can send them to me in an email to john@caringforothers.org.

Closing

I hope your thinking was stimulated by today\u2019s show, to both reflect and to find a way to celebrate Christmas like God did that first Christmas. He wanted to be with people in a relationship, to be with people in community. It\u2019s what he intends for all of us; if he were to speak to us audibly today I\u2019m sure he\u2019d say You Were Made for This!

Related resources to help be with people in community

If you missed the other episodes in our Relationships at Christmas series, you can access them by clicking on the following links:

A Christmas Gift of Silence, episode 80
A Christmas Gift of Deep Personal Connection, episode 81
A Christmas Gift of Anticipation, episode 82

Our Relationship Quote of the Week

As I read the birth stories about Jesus I cannot help but conclude that though the world may be tilted toward the rich and powerful, God is tilted toward the underdog. ~ Phillip Yancey

One last Christmas gift before we close

This Friday, December 25, I\u2019ll have an extra Christmas bonus episode for you. It will be brief, so please look for it and listen in.

That\u2019s all for today. See you next week. Goodbye for now.

You Were Made for This is sponsored by Caring for Others, a missionary care ministry. We depend upon the generosity of donors to pay our bills.\xa0 If you'd like to support what we do with a secure tax-deductible donation, please click here. We'd be so grateful if you did.