Have you finished your Christmas shopping?
Did you get out at 3 in the morning on Black Friday, fight the crowds and score the $6 laptop? Maybe you went for the $200 Hummer.
Some of you are already done. Everything is picked out, bought, and ready to go.
Understand this, if you are one of those people, don’t tell the rest of us. We don’t want to know that you were done back in March. We want you to be stressed like the rest of us.
If you are like me there are tons of people to buy for.
And the invariable dilemma results year after year: what do we get for these people?
There are only so many shades of ties, scents of lotion, and sizes of fruitcake that we can continue to foist on the people in our lives year after year.
There has to be some universal gift that is applicable to everyone no matter what their situation.
Let me propose to you a couple of ideas this gift-giving season that will truly embody the spirit of what Christmas is to be about.

• Heifer International is an organization that is committed to ending hunger in third world countries. Through their program you can buy different animals that will enable impoverished people to become self-reliant. Go to heifer.org to learn more.
• You can buy a heifer or a share of a heifer that will provide 4 gallons of milk a day for a needy family. And the first calf that your heifer has will be given to yet another family.
• You can buy a llama or a share of one that will provide fleece for families to make warm clothing.
• You can buy a promise basket that would give a family geese,
  ducks, chickens and rabbits.
• There are countless more options of different animals that you can give in the name of someone from water buffaloes to honeybees. How great it would be to receive a gift that would bless an entire family in your name.

• World Vision offers similar gifts that would bless a needy family in the name of one of your regular gift recipients. Go to worldvision.org for more info.
• You could send a child to school for one year for $75
• You can provide clean water.
• You can give to Gulf Coast victims who will have nothing this holiday season.
• For just $30 a month you can sponsor a child, $35 for a hope child (an African child left orphaned by HIV/AIDS) or an entire family for $40. These costs will provide clean water, health care, education, better places to live and, most importantly, hope.
• One other option is to find a needy family in this community and provide Christmas for them on behalf of your gift list.

Consider doing your gift-giving a little different this year. Give on behalf of someone else. There is a world of need out there and many ways to provide help. Skip the fruitcake and give a pig. Fore-go the cheese basket and adopt a child.
If none of these suggestions work for you find another way to truly give this Christmas season.
It’s why He came.