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Archives: January 2009
All wrapped up?
By Rachel Kitchen
Now, as we find ourselves with the Christmas decorations well and truly packed away, the New Year's resolutions begun, broken and by now forgotten, I wonder what the definitive moment of Christmas was for you?
For me it was 5 nights wrapping Christmas presents in the local shopping centre in Watford - for free. Maybe I'm weird but it was fun.
Surrounded by outlandish decorations and the mad hustle of desperate last minute shoppers, a team of us wrapped and chatted to a mass of strangers - drawn to us by the word "free".
Every night, without fail, the queue grew even before we had finished setting up. The response was astonishing; beyond our highest expectations.
The centre management were gob-smacked that anyone would undertake doing something like it for free. They are still convinced that the boss paid for it! One guy, who I had the pleasure of chatting to, shared his story as I wrapped his whole present collection.
He told me that he was leaving for Germany the following day and returning late on Christmas Eve. This was his only time to shop for presents.
As he was rushing round he was thinking to himself, "When will I get have time to wrap these?" That was when he turned a corner and saw us. Another lady told us this would be the first year her kids unwrapped their presents as she had never been able to wrap them herself before.
Another guys comment after chatting with a volunteer was, "this really is Christmas now!"
Such a simple thing. Yet it stirred in these otherwise strangers the question "why?"
Why?
Why did we do it? Because I believe it demonstrates in some way the character of the Father.
Our God is generous; its in his very nature. He is abundant in his love and kindness towards us. Just look at creation.
How many stars are out there? How many planets, universes even, 1000s of millions of miles away? And why? So we can have a pretty sky!
Jesus didn't give crummy gifts...
We see the generosity of God in the life of Jesus. Jesus took 5 loaves and two small fish and fed 5000 men, (who knows how many the number would have grown to if they had counted the women and kids?) That is generosity.
But look at the story a little more closely. God not only miraculously provided: he went over the top. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. Matt 14: 20.
This was no skimp and save picnic, where just the edge was taken off their hunger. It was rather like an eat as much as you like buffet for 5, minus the 5 bit.
You can imagine the disciple's faces as they went from nervous hesitation to carefree extravagance, "oh go on, have a little more".
Twelve basketfuls of leftovers were collected up - you would have thought the Son of God could have been a little more accurate in his estimations! What extravagant generosity!
Jesus not only spoke the good news, he was good news - and a free picnic certainly was good news to a hungry crowd.
A Grumpy Old Man kinda God?
Why have those around us got such a distorted view of God? God is often seen as a heavy handed, angry, authoritarian figure, who issues rules, regulations and tuts at every mistake. A God who takes not gives, who frowns not smiles.
But this is not the God of the bible, nor the God of my experience. Jesus said if you have seen me, you have seen the father. But now Jesus Christ has ascended into heaven and the spirit of God continues to communicate the character of God through the body of Christ on earth today the church.
How will those outside the church come to know the loving kindness of God unless they experience it through his church?
We can have a tendency to expect the people to come to us. Come to our services, our evangelistic meetings, our youth groups. Instead of expecting the community to come to us, we need to be encouraging each other to get stuck into the community in as many creative ways we can think of.
It doesn't have to be a big organised event, it can be what people come up with on their own in the streets they live in.
Heres a couple of ideas to get your started...
Free canned drink giveaways
Gardening
Painting over graffiti
Litter picking
Free car wash or inside car clean.
The possibilities are endless but let's just get out there and share some of God's generosity! Maybe that way people will realise God isn't a grumpy old man, but passionately cares for them, wanting to be their Father.
Make sure you check out our suggested weekly act of kindness (AOK Day) missions over at the Soul Action site and join the revolution of kindness!
Find out more...
About the writer...
Rach Kitchen used to be one of the pastors at Soul Survivor Watford, but she's now up at Trent Vineyard in Nottingham.
This article is taken from back in 2003 when the lovely Rachel was still around us here in Watford!
Soul Survivor is a Christian charity that puts on events for young people. Our registered charity no. is 1080720. We are also a company limited by guarantee in England & Wales. Our company registered number is 03991111, which is nice. Thanks for caring.
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