The holiday season is busy no doubt. You’ve got to buy gifts, make food, take down decorations from the last holiday, and put up decorations for the coming one. We are so consumed by “stuff.” Shopping, gifts, decorations, busyness.

But what if we were more consumed by love, rather than stuff?

How different would this holiday season look? We hop right into Christmas after Thanksgiving. We feel like our one day of thankfulness is enough for a while. We forget that every day we are called to simply love. In the midst of all of the holiday hype, I have been reminded of this verse:

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

We can do a lot of things for people. We can give gifts; we can share compliments. However, if we do not love, we are nothing. That doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the holiday season and enjoy buying gifts or even the busyness of it. I know I love it! But this goes far beyond the holiday season.

If we were so consumed by authentic love, how much different would every day look? We wouldn’t be consumed by the “stuff” in our lives. Situations that seem like too much to handle would seem less significant or even insignificant. For “whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25).

Are we so consumed by “stuff” in this life, that we’re forgetting about the importance of the gift of love? So don’t just give a present. Simply love.