2021-12-24 13:56:13
What’s in a gift?
When I became a father, one of the things that surprised me at Christmas time was my desire to give gifts to my children. Having been a child, I knew that I wanted to receive gifts, but I never realized that I had a need and desire to give too! This revelation was followed by the realization that it is possible to give selfishly and I was guilty of it. When I thought honestly about my motivations in gift giving, I realized that I was worried about what my gift said about me. Did my gifts say I was generous? We’re my gifts big and impressive? What foolish thoughts I had! And then there is that self-deceptive gift purchase when you buy something for someone else that you actually wanted yourself. (When buying gifts for siblings, this tends to happen more often. :) )When they open it, they know what happened.
We would like to believe that, as Christians, we are above these selfish motives, but I was not. Owning that these were my thoughts and motives made me a better gift giver. I have worked to replace those thoughts and motives with this simple one:
Does this gift communicate love?
Is this gift thoughtful? Does it meet their need? Does it say “I am thinking about you”?
I didn’t have much of a relationship with my maternal grandmother. I didn’t see her much and she wasn’t the warmest person in the world. But she was generous with money. We always exchanged gifts with her and my cousins on Christmas Eve. Every year she would ask her MANY grandchildren what they wanted for Christmas and, within reason, she would buy you exactly what you requested. That was cool but it didn’t add much to our relationship. Grandma was a dependable vending machine at Christmas, but I still didn’t know her and she didn’t know me.
I remember one particular Christmas when she bought me a football video game I requested. Materialistically, there was nothing I wanted more that year, but it wasn’t my favorite gift. The next morning my parents gave me and my siblings their gifts. I opened a toy that was an old school technology baseball game I had never seen before. When Mom saw me open it, she said, “You father saw that in the store and he thought you would like it.”
I was probably 11 or 12 years old and I suddenly understood what it was that I loved most about receiving gifts at Christmas. I loved being seen, heard, and remembered. This particular gift made me realize that my Dad thought about me throughout the year, even when I don’t realize it. Mom and Dad knew me well enough to know what I wanted without me telling them. They knew me. That was my favorite gift: being seen. These are the kind of gifts we should give: the gifts that say, “I see you, I know you, and I love you.”
Your Father in heaven thinks about you constantly. He sees you. He knows you. He gives His gifts freely to you. He has a good intention for your life.
With this in mind, have a Merry Christmas!
“For He gives to His beloved
even in his sleep.” Psalm 127:2
371 viewsKarl Gessler, 10:56
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