By this time on Christmas Eve, you’re probably off work and settled in at home with your family (unless you’re the kind who is just starting your Christmas shopping). You probably don’t want to spend a lot of time reading a long, thoughtful article on Christmas, and we don’t blame you.

We can’t let the holiday pass, however, without pointing out a few of the things that Christmas teaches us about God’s plan for life. This holiday is so familiar to us, and yet we have so much to learn.

There are all sorts of things that could be said about Christmas, its meaning and its impact in our lives. Tonight, we’re going to focus on just three things that Christmas teaches us about God and His plan for our financial lives.

1) You are intended to be free.

We all know that the true meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the day when God came to earth and walked among us. And while it’s a wonderful thing to celebrate, we often forget that this event was simply the first step on a much longer mission. Jesus came into the world so that we could be free. He was born to die, sent to ransom us from the sin that had made us slaves.

The purpose of Christmas was to set us free from our chains and bring us back to God. He has always intended for us to be free, and Christmas was His way securing freedom for us for all of eternity.

If you’re struggling with bondage — financial or otherwise — know that God intends for you to be free. And if you’ll follow Him, He’ll guide you down the path to freedom.

2) You were made to be a giver.

Our modern celebration of Christmas revolves around giving, and for good reason: We give gifts to each other to symbolize the great Gift that God gave to us. And the joy that we get from giving gifts to each other reveals something about the purpose of our existence: We were made to be givers.

Christmas teaches us that a generous spirit is crucial to the human experience. God made us all to be givers, because He is a giver. And while it’s nice for us to give to each other at Christmastime, this is only a shadow of what life should really be. God wants us to be generous givers in every season, because His generosity to us knows no time limits.

3) You are destined to leave a legacy.

One of the most precious aspects of Christmas is the time that we spend together with our loved ones during the holiday. And it’s not just any time: The special customs and traditions that make up our unique Christmas celebrations often become some of our most cherished memories from childhood. The things that we do with our families during the holidays make a big impact on our children.

This brings us to the final lesson from Christmas: We are all destined to leave a legacy. Christmas traditions and memories are a vivid example of this, but the principle applies all year long. The decisions that we make and the habits that we model will endure long after our time on this earth is over. The way that we handle money will have an impact on our families for generations. And the way we live out our faith can have ripples across the entire world.

As you and your family celebrate this Christmas, we hope that you have a blessed and wonderful time together, and that you’ll be inspired to carry the spirit of freedom, generosity and legacy into 2014.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

– Brian and Laura

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Photo by brx0. Used under Creative Commons License.