There’s a part of me that wants to grumble “Bah, humbug” every time I hear mention of someone, usually a little boy named Tiny Tim, who won’t “have Christmas,” by which they mean won’t get presents – or presents of sufficient quality or quantity to meet the definition of “having Christmas.” Christmas isn’t something you “have.” Christmas is something you experience.  And I don’t mean the grumpy Christian insistence on the “real meaning” of Christmas.  I mean Christmas also in its all its cultural glory: silver bells; chestnuts roasting o’er and open fire; Frosty, Santa and Rudolph; It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street; ghosts of Christmases past, present and future. Christmas isn’t something we have, it’s something we experience.

A child of down-on-their-luck parents who receives a stocking full of Dollar Store goodies from parents who love him or her experiences Christmas in ways deeper and richer than the child who is given this year’s version of X-box or a new iPhone from parents too busy to notice that he or she needs to throw a football around the backyard or just sit and talk about school and friends over a cup of hot chocolate. Bah, humbug.

But not every parent of every needy child is a Bob Cratchit who gives his children much more than Scrooge’s money could ever buy, or a George Bailey who has come to see that no matter what, it really is a wonderful life.

Some children live in foster homes where faithful and loving parents work 365 days a year to stretch a meager government check as far as it will go.  Some children live with parents whose struggle with the broken relationships or the addictions that plague their lives make going to the Dollar Store as distant a possibility as a limo ride to the glitz of the best boutiques on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Some children live with working parents doing their best in a lousy economy who don’t want to have to choose between paying the electric bill and buying a football to toss around the backyard – or the park down the street.

Children matter. They matter to Jesus who told his grumpy disciples to let them come to him and stay awhile with him. They ought to matter to us, to all of us and especially to those of us who follow Jesus, even if we’re a little grumpy at times.

One of many reasons that I love being a part of the faith community at LPC is that children matter to us.

We really can’t give a Christmas to any child, but we can give Christmas gifts that may – or may not – tell a child that his or her parents or someone else loves him or her.  Between our Bethana Angel Tree and donations to the Bucks County Housing Group “toy store” (at LPC Tuesday and Wednesday of this coming week), we’re at about 75 children in our community who will receive a gift they would not otherwise receive.  We can’t give Christmas to anyone, but we can give a gift.

Sunday is the deadline for getting your gift into the box or under the tree. Just bring an unwrapped toy (under $25) for the BCHG box or a Target or Walmart gift card for the Angel Tree. We’re at 75. Let’s hit 100!

LPC cares for kids and not just at Christmas time.  The numbers go something like this:

• 141 children in Guatemala will have an opportunity to learn this coming year because of your generous support of Plan Padrino (we can’t give them an education, but we can give them an opportunity).
• 250 Guatemalan children (many of them recipients of a Plan Padrino scholarship) are being provided with at least one nutritious meal everyday for the last three months of the year because of your gifts to our mission budget and last spring’s Pentecost Offering (LPC was able to fully fund the Spring of Hope Feeding program for these last three months of the year when soaring food prices in Guatemala threatened PLM’s ability to continue until the new year).
• Hundreds of children and their parents are given medical care and have their homes repaired by the LPC mission teams who travel to Guatemala every year.
• The 200 children of Hunting Park Christian Academy are given an opportunity to learn because of your love for them. Again through general mission giving, the Peacemaking Offering, support of a runner in the Race for Education, gifts of school supplies, participation in HPCA workdays and individual donations to the HPCA scholarship fund, we are making a difference.
• An uncounted number – in the 100’s, for sure – of Bucks county children are able to eat a little better and sleep a little warmer because of your generous gifts of time, talent and treasure to Bucks County Housing, Aid for Friends, the Red Cross Homeless shelter and more.
• A little boy in the Cameroon, West Africa, is regaining his sight because of your gifts and God’s providence through LPC.  You may remember the story.

The numbers add up to thousands of hours of time and love and tens of thousands of dollars (close to $100,000 might not be too high a guess). I tell you all that not for our congregational bragging rights.  I tell you this so that we might celebrate the joy of having been called to follow Jesus who loves the little children.

One piece of the loving children puzzle I did not mention is the way we love the children of the church family. Every Sunday School teacher and shepherd, every youth group leader and work trip volunteer, every Children’s Ministry and Youth and Young Adult committee member, every adult who is willing to call a child by name and ask about the things that are important in his or her life is part of sharing Christ’s love with the children.  We can’t give them faith, but we can tell them about Jesus and his love – word and deed we can share the gospel with them.

Bah, humbug. Don’t worry about giving Christmas to anyone. Joyfully share with them the great good news of the possibility of a wonderful life of faith and hope and love for all who believe.

Oh, and let’s hit 100 gifts by Sunday!