It's your birthday. Family and friends have all gathered to share in the festivities. "Happy Birthday" has been sung, the candles blown out, the last of the cake eaten, and now the time has come to open gifts.

But just as you are about to reach for those brightly colored packages, your guests begin passing them around and tearing them open. As they excitedly show their gifts to one another, you feel like shouting, "Hey, I thought this was my birthday."

I wonder sometimes if Jesus doesn't feel the same way. On his birthday, we exchange gifts with our family and closest friends. We bring treats to our neighbors and co-workers at the office. But somehow Jesus seems to often get lost in the shuffle.

That wasn't the case that first Christmas. Led by a star in the east, the wise men had come to find and worship the one they believed to have been born the king of the Jews.

Finding the Christ-child, we read that "they bowed down and worshiped him. Then opening up their treasures, they presented him with gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh." (Matthew 2:11b-12).

There is always something moving in those first Christmas gifts:

• They gave willingly. No one told them this was the Christmas thing to do.
  
• They gave personally. They traveled hundreds of miles to deliver their gifts in person.
  
• They gave sacrificially. The Scripture says that they offered the Christ child their treasures.
  
• They gave appropriately. Gold was the gift for royalty. Incense was used in temple worship. Myrrh was a spice used in preparing a body for burial. In an amazing way, the visitors from the east realized that the tiny infant had come to be King, Priest, and Savior.
  
• They gave joyfully. "When they saw the child, they were filled with joy."

This year has been an exciting one for us as a church. God has brought Pastor Kirk and Deb into our fellowship. Already, we have been touched by their commitment, talents, and enthusiasm for ministry. We have expanded our program by adding a second service. A tithe, one-tenth of our entire church family was involved in some type of summer short term mission. Our giving is up 12-14% over last year and God continues to bring an exciting array of new people into our fellowship.

There is one concern, however. As we come to the end of November, we are facing some rather serious deficits. Our income is approximately $11,000 behind our expenses for the year and we have $14,000 more in unpaid bills. We really need to meet these expenses by the end of the year to avoid cutting back our ministry in 1998.

As we now approach the Christmas Season, why not consider a special gift to the Church in honor of the one whose birth we celebrate. As the Apostle Paul writes, "Such a gift not only meets the needs of the saints, but overflows in a great tide of thanksgiving to the Lord."