All I Want For Christmas...

I know this is late but Christmas is still happening as the 12 days of Christmas starts December 25th and goes through January 5th.

Around Christmas time people think about what to get this person and that person, but how often do we think about what we are going to give Jesus for Christmas? What could we give Jesus, our Lord, that He doesn’t have? I was listening to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and it got me thinking about the gift of self. All Jesus wants for Christmas is you, and me, and each and every person He created. I listened to Mariah’s song and imagined God was singing it to me, telling me how much He wants to be with me, with all of us! God made us out of love as “God is Love.” (1 John 4:8 and 4:16b) Love is desiring the good of the other and not counting the cost to oneself. God desires our greatest good: to live forever with God in Heaven! In order to do that, we must become disciples of Jesus Christ and give our lives to God.

My mind tied this train of thought to another well known Christmas song that hits this point home: The Little Drummer Boy. This little drummer boy has nothing and finds himself looking upon Jesus, the King of the Universe. Just listen to the lyrics:

“I am a poor boy too… I have no gifts to bring… That’s fit to give the King.”

The little drummer boy recognizes that nothing he has could be worthy to give Jesus, then he realizes there IS something he can do: “Shall I play for you pa rum pum pum pum, On my drum?”

Drumming was what brought the little drummer boy joy. It was an expression of his love and being. And it was the perfect gift. The little drummer boy in this act was saying to Jesus, “I give to you all I have: myself, my whole being.” That gift of the little drummer boy was more precious to Jesus than all the gold, frankincense, and myrrh of the world. Jesus came to give himself to the world and in return He desires us to give ourselves to Him!

I will leave you with a couple of meditations given to some holy women.

St. Faustina received visions of Jesus and he spoke to her of His love and mercy. “This immense love and abyss of mercy are made known in the Incarnation of the Word and in the Redemption [of humanity], and it is here that I saw this as the greatest of all God's attributes.” (St Faustina’s Diary, Paragraph 181) “I have revealed to you the whole ocean of my mercy,” she reports Jesus saying. “I seek and desire souls like yours, but they are few.” Jesus’s love and mercy is like an ocean that is ready to flood us with love and mercy (in the best way), if we would but surrender ourselves to Him.

Mother Teresa, now St. Teresa of Calcutta made a great meditation on God’s longing for us in the words Jesus said from the cross, “I THIRST.” (Jn 19:28) Look it up as it is powerful. Jesus is longing for us, for the gift of ourselves to Him. Jesus didn’t accept His Passion and Crucifixion for nothing, but for YOU and for ME. “Listen again to the words I spoke there - for they tell you clearly why I endured all this for you: “I THIRST…” (Jn 19:28) Yes, I thirst for you…” (I Thirst for You, Mother Teresa)

I know I will be striving to give myself to Jesus out of a desire to please Him, I hope you will join me.