Sowing Seeds to All in Need: Devotion for December 15

One of my favorite places to linger this time of year is by the dining-room window, looking out at the birdfeeder dusted with winter snow. The yard feels quieter in December, yet the feeder is still a flurry of life—sparrows, juncos, chickadees, finches, nuthatches, and the occasional determined squirrel. Every now and then a bright cardinal or a curious woodpecker lands, and for a moment, the whole scene feels like its own little Christmas postcard.

It reminds me of an old Victorian Christmas card titled The Kindly Robin. At first glance, the picture might feel a little unusual to our modern eyes—a well-dressed robin offering a red berry to a cold, shivering robin. But the message is unmistakably Christmas. It’s a simple picture of generosity: one small creature giving what it has so another might have enough.

Christmas has always been a story of unexpected kindness. God comes to us not as a king with power and privilege, but as a child placed in a manger—a feeding trough, of all things. The Christmas miracle is that God chooses humility, gentleness, and generosity as the way to enter the world. Heaven’s most precious gift arrives wrapped not in gold, but in swaddling cloth.

As I watch the birds come and go from the feeder, I realize I have no control over who shows up. Anyone with wings is welcome. And in that simple truth lies a very Christmas-shaped reminder: God’s love is not selective. It is not reserved only for those who behave well or think like we do or fit comfortably into our lives. John 3:16 tells us, “God so loved the world”—all of it, every last one of us.

Some people are easy to love; others stretch our patience and test our grace. Yet the message of Christmas is not “be kind to those who deserve it,” but “give freely, because you have received freely.”

The manger teaches us that God’s love arrives for everyone—shepherds and sages, strangers and neighbors, the overlooked and the difficult, and even those we struggle to understand.

Just like the feeder in my backyard scatters seed for any creature who comes, God invites us to scatter kindness with the same open-handed generosity. To offer compassion without calculating who is worthy. To give grace without measuring how it might be returned.

Proverbs 11:24 reminds us of this holy paradox: “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer.”

This is the season when generosity comes naturally—when red berries, warm meals, carols, candles, and gatherings remind us of the One who gave himself for the life of the world. But Christmas isn’t just a day; it’s a way of seeing. A way of living. A way of sowing seeds so that others—especially those shivering at the edges of the cold—might feel warmth again.

As we move through this season, may our hearts mirror that kindly robin. May we give as God has given to us—freely, joyfully, and without exception. And may every seed of kindness we scatter point others back to the manger, where love himself was born.

Featured art: The Kindly Robin, Castell Brothers, late 19th century.