The Only Christmas Gift Kids Really Want
Kids love gifts. They love toys. They love tearing through wrapping paper and tape, ripping boxes open, and digging through stockings like they're on some sort of treasure hunt. The toys, however, are not what they're so excited about.
The gift they long for comes after they open the toy and find batteries for their new present. The top of their Christmas wish list isn't the latest toy...it's playing with the latest toy with their parents.
The only Christmas present your kids really want is time with you.
It's opening up a coloring book only to spend the next hour coloring pictures with you. It's finding a book you can read to them, a puzzle you can help them with, or a Nerf gun you can teach them how to shoot. Christmas isn't over when the presents are all unwrapped...for kids, that's when the real fun begins.
As the song says, "All they want for Christmas is you."
Christmas presents can be a great opportunity to celebrate the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We can talk to our kids about why we receive gifts on his birthday. We can remind them that Jesus always brings gifts. He brings gifts through his birth, life, death, and resurrection, and it is a free gift of eternal life (Rom. 6:23).
But, as we talk about Gospel opportunities this Christmas, let us not forget that Paul not only shared the Gospel, but shared his very life as well (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
Jonathan Williams is the founder of Gospel Family Ministries and the Senior Pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church, a multi-ethnic church of 44 nations located in Houston, TX. He and his wife are blessed with three wonderful children.