When Mary finds out she’s pregnant with the Jesus, she sings a song — a pretty interesting one:
He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.
—Luke 1:52-55
When I first read this, I swear I heard Santa Claus drop dead of a heart attack. “He has sent the rich away empty…” Does that sound like everything you wanted? Not quite.
God loves the poor. He is among them. And if we are going to celebrate the birth of his Son with any sense of conscience, we must be with them, too.
A few years ago, I spent the month of December hanging out with a community of homeless men and women who lived under a bridge in downtown Nashville. My friend Paul and I brought them candy canes, shoes, and coats. Sure, we gave them gifts; but they gave us a gift we could never repay.
They opened our eyes to the true spirit of Christmas.
As it turns out, it’s not about holiday specials and sugar cookies or about getting everything you ever wanted. Through the dirty and downtrodden and nearly-forgotten, I learned what December 25 is really about: compassion.
Christmas belongs to the poor
The other night, I caught an old rerun of Frasier. It was a Christmas episode. On the show, Frasier meets a homeless man who tells him, rather pointedly, what Christmas is all about:
The rest of the year belongs to rich people with their fancy houses and expensive foreign cars, but Christmas, Christmas belongs to guys like us.
Frasier forgets his wallet and can’t cover the cost of his meal, so the homeless man and his friends cover it. This is the great irony and paradox of Christmas, of learning to live compassionately: We don’t give to the poor; they give to us.
Taken From An Article by Jeff Goins