In my devotional last week, I ran across this story in The 12 Ways of Christmas by David Jeremiah on pages 18-25, and was so challenged I wanted to share it with you. It is a good reminder before we get into the season of Christmas.

"Jim and Della were young, starting their marriage with nothing and getting by on little more. Eight dollars a week for a flat took a big bite out of Jim's twenty-dollar-a-week salary. But what they lacked in material things, they made up for with love. Christmas came and Della despaired over the $1.87 (60 cents of it in pennies) she had been able to save for Jim's Christmas present-until she looked in the mirror and saw the one thing she had that was worth something: her beautiful knee-length hair. Jim loved her long hair, but it would grow back. And with the money she could buy Jim a gold chain for his most valued possession-the watch he had inherited from his grandfather, then his father. With the $20 in hand she got for her hair, she bought the gold chain and waited anxiously for Jim to get home from work.

His crestfallen face at the sight of Della's short hair was not for the reason she thought. He professed his love for her regardless of the length of her hair, then handed Della his gift for her: a set of tortoiseshell combs with jeweled edges for Della to wear in her now-gone hair-bought with the money he got for his heirloom gold watch. Two young lovers sacrificed all they had for the sake of their beloved's joy at Christmas. O. Henry's short story 'The Gift of the Magi' has become a Christmas classic because it reveals the heart of the Christmas story: sacrificial love. The author himself concluded his story this way: 'But in a last word to the wise of these days, let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are th wisest.' Why? because Della and Jim discovered that love and sacrifice are synonyms, that the deeper the cost of giving, the deeper the experience of love and joy. Sacrifice, of course, is what the true Christmas story is all about. It is not so much about giving as it is about sacrificing. (All sacrifice is giving, but not all giving is sacrifice.) Even if God had more than one Son to give up for the sake of His sin-stained creation, to give even one would have been sacrifice. But to send His only Son from the glory of heaven to the grind of earth, knowing what would befall Him while He was here-that's sacrifice.

Sacrifice means to give to another person something we could have kept for ourselves. It means to choose, to deny, to love, to give, and to find the deepest pleasure in another's joy. Because the heart of the Christmas message is sacrifice, we ought to look for ways this year to give sacrificially. That doesn't necessarily mean emptying your bank account for the pour of of a guilt complex. It means to look for ways to put others' needs, desires, and joy ahead of your own."

Acts 20:35 "It is more blessed to give than to receive."