Christmas is a time of anticipation, surprise and joy. It is also a very hectic time as we decorate our homes, send and receive countless greeting cards, emails, make calls, shop for a perfect gift for our friends and family, visit and host them. But all this hustle and bustle is forgotten when we get to meet and spend time with our families, when we experience the innocent joy in the faces of our children as they unwrap their presents from Santa, when we open a Christmas card sent from a dear friend we lost touch with and when we get to see all the thoughtful gifts our friends and family prepared for us. This, undoubtedly makes us feel how much they love and treasure us and how much we mean to them. But ultimately, we also realize that these wonderful, caring, and loving people are our true gift and blessing beyond any physical gift.

What is often easily overlooked amid Christmas joy and celebration is that God is the very source of every good gift and blessing in our lives. “Giver of Good Gifts and Fountain of Peace” are the exact words used to refer to God in the prayer of the Peace Hour service in the Armenian church. Unlike Santa and others, God does not simply remember and shower us with his love and gifts once a year on our birthdays and Christmas, but every day, every minute and second of our lives. Our mere existence and opportunity of being created and alive are the results of his love and faith towards us. What God does for his children is not based on a naughty or nice list, but unconditional love. Good or bad, naughty or nice, faithful or godless, church-goer, agnostic or atheist, He loves us all, all the time, and equally. Every cell and chemical reaction in our bodies, every electrical impulse and activity in our brains vibrate with his life-giving presence who breathed the gift of life into us and continues to do so every moment of us being alive.

This Christmas season, when the noise and commotion of the holiday fade away, let us set aside time and space for the Giver of all good gifts. Let us acknowledge and thank him for his abandoned love and many blessings with which he fills our lives, sustaining and watching over our families and us.