Merry Christmas 2004

I've been thinking a lot about gifts fit into Christmas. Thoughts have come from a variety of different places. Every bit of it is relevant to me personally, so to anyone reading this, please don't take this as criticism aimed specifically at you. Although I hope you find it insightful for your own life, it is based around my experience and what I am learning.

The gift of Christ is the Christmas gift. So I don't think gifts, in and of themselves, are a bad thing to be giving at Christmas. In fact, I think they have the potential to be expressions of God's love for us. I think our approach to gifts is where we have gone wrong. I think we can learn a lot from looking at Jesus, the true Christmas gift.

First, why are they given? I think that for most of us, gifts are given out of obligation. We know that it is expected of us to give gifts to certain people around Christmas time. Although there is often love in the relationship, that is not the driving force behind the gift. Furthermore, we give these gifts regardless of whether or not we actually come up with something worth giving. Neither of these is a trait of God's gift giving. He had no obligation in giving the gift of His son. Jesus is given to us for our salvation as a gift of love. Furthermore, Jesus is the perfect gift. He is the one thing we desperately need above all else. I think we would do well to follow God's lead if and when we give.

Second, how do we receive them? Have you ever been given a gift by someone you didn't expect to receive a gift from? Perhaps you expected a gift, but didn't expect it to be as costly as what you actually received. What is your first reaction? Is it thankfulness or an uneasiness because you now feel indebted to them? For many of us, I think it is the latter. If I can't be thankful for gifts from people whom I can see, how can I possibly be thankful to God whom I cannot see? I think many of us have a lot of growing to do in our ability to truly be thankful for each gift given to us.

Third (and largely related to the second point), when you give a gift, how does the attitude of the receiver affect you? Whenever I give a gift, I tend to look anxiously to see their reaction. I hope desperately that they will enjoy and treasure my gift. My fear is that they will reject my gift, either outright or just in their emotional reaction to it. On the other side, what do we do to each other by our attitude as receivers? Every year I receive gifts I'm not immediately sure what to do with (and often these gifts later end up being far better than I had originally imagined). Yet no matter how much I would like to hide it, I'm sure my hard, unthankful heart comes through in my attitude toward the giver, hurting them in spite of their often thoughtful gift. How much more does this happen with God? Can anyone claim to truly understand the extent of the gift that was given in Jesus? How often do we reject the joys of Christmas rather than thanking God for them? God has given us Jesus, and He has given us an abundance of other gifts too. Is it not right that in this season our attitude should be one of thankful humility for everything God has given us?

Anyway, I hope that you had a blessed Christmas and were able to thank God for the gifts in your life.