The Overlooked Main Character

[Jesus said,] “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

LOOKING AROUND THE dimly lit lower level, no one would think this was a place where anything special happened.

If you focused solely on the bare concrete floors or the brown tables lined up in rows, you’d overlook the good stuff: the piles of red and green gift bags, rolls of wrapping paper, and stacks of name tags and ribbons. You’d bypass the people chatting softly on the room’s edges, faces smiling. You’d miss the joyful expectation that turned a shabby basement dressed only in a few strands of twinkling lights into a place of love and goodwill.

But with a cold blast of December air and a flurry of activity, the space was transformed. The people waiting inside hummed to life as the door flew inward, held open by a volunteer leading several children and adults inside. One by one, the volunteers raised their hands, signaling their readiness for a child to approach their table. Another volunteer would then lead a child over, garbage bag in hand, filled with bulky gift items that the table volunteer would wrap for them.

Kids Hope Shop is an annual event organized and hosted by a local shelter every December. Its purpose is to allow local at-risk kids to “shop” for their family members for free. As a volunteer, I (Kristin) have wrapped countless lotions for moms, slippers for sisters, and tool sets for uncles. I’ve found creative ways to wrap unwieldy basketballs for big brothers and smiled at the sight of children painstakingly laboring over labels for those they love most. I’ve even had a baby fall asleep in my arms while her big brother had his gifts wrapped. Some kids are somber, others wary, but all are wide-eyed with excitement over the good gifts they can’t wait to share with those they love.

But the beauty of that evening isn’t found in the humble surroundings or even in the gifts themselves. Instead, it’s in the love demonstrated by each volunteer who emerges hours later into a starry night with aching feet and a full heart. It’s in the knowledge that, as volunteers, we can be the hands and feet of Jesus, showing love through simple acts of service and participating in God’s broader purpose. But what moves us to be involved in this way? Where do we find the energy and encouragement to keep going when our feet hurt and we’re ready to go home?

Perhaps we can find some answers in the Christmas narrative. When we think of this story, the main characters seem obvious: Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the shepherds, the angels, the wise men. But there’s another important character who is easy to overlook: indeed, the power of the Holy Spirit is woven throughout as a guiding presence for more than one person, moving people to act and ensuring that God’s purpose is fulfilled. From the beginning, it’s the Holy Spirit who is named by the angel Gabriel when Mary asks how she could conceive, given that she is a virgin.

The angel explains, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Despite what must have been an incredible and overwhelming encounter, Mary chooses to believe that what Gabriel has told her is true. She accepts that the Holy Spirit is about to move in her life in a powerful way. In Luke 1:38, Mary responds, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”

Mary’s courage in believing the angel and being led by the Holy Spirit is arguably what allows the rest of the story to unfold.

Just a few days later, Mary visits Elizabeth, who is already six months pregnant with John the Baptist. Again, the Holy Spirit plays a pivotal role in bolstering their faith:

At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

The Holy Spirit causes Elizabeth to recognize how the child leaped in her womb and to offer it as an encouragement (a word that literally means to “instill courage”) to Mary. Elizabeth’s confidence and joy over Mary’s pregnancy and her exhortation that Mary is blessed because she believed that the Lord would do what he said leads Mary to follow with her own song of praise.

When we are open to believing God and being led by the Holy Spirit, we can see glimpses of how he is moving in this world—just as Elizabeth did when her child leaped for joy within her. Elizabeth’s words—directed by the Holy Spirit—provided the encouragement Mary needed to reconfirm what the angel had said.

What encouragement can we find for ourselves in these events of the Christmas story? Perhaps it is best pictured in this way: as ordinary people, we are led by the power of the Holy Spirit to believe that God will do as he said he would and will fulfill the plans he has for us.

Our response to the Holy Spirit is twofold: to believe that God’s promises are true and to be moved to action because of that belief. Like Mary and Elizabeth, we are not simply bystanders in the great story God is writing throughout history—we are witnesses and participants.

As 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 reminds us, “It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us.”

Like Mary and Elizabeth, we can be encouraged by the Holy Spirit. And we can recognize how, out of the overflow of God’s love for us, we can extend love to others because the power of the Holy Spirit equips and enables us to do everything God has purposed for us to do.

Though we can encourage others with our words, as Elizabeth did with Mary, we can also take another step toward serving others. Based on my own experiences at Kids Hope Shop, the physical exhaustion afterward is temporary, but the warmth and joy of helping others remains even years later.

It’s a funny truth that when we serve others, our own spirits are lifted. When we give, we also receive. Scripture embodies this in a visual: “pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap.” Science calls this a “helper’s high”—the exhilarating feeling we have after we serve others. One researcher found that this joy and energy lasted several weeks and would return even when people recalled the event. A neuroscientist reported that our generosity toward someone else—whether through giving money or volunteering—activates a particular part of our brains, reinforcing feel-good neurotransmitters and making it more likely that we’ll repeat the action or behavior.^a

I love how God has wired us to want to help others! When we believe in his promises and notice the Holy Spirit at work in the world around us, we, too, can be witnesses and participants in God’s great story for humanity. What a gift.

Lord, thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit, who has been at work all along in advancing your Kingdom. Thank you for assuring us that we can believe your promises are true. Help us recognize opportunities to follow Spirit-led nudges to love and serve others well, reminding ourselves of the privilege of being the hands and feet of Jesus in this world. Amen.