There is often a lot of hand-wringing around Christmas time that amid all of the hustle and bustle of drafting wish lists and scouring shopping centers and angrily yelling at customer service representatives when shipments are delayed and going through yards and yards of wrapping paper and getting swept up in all manner of crassly consumerist pursuits that all of this fixation on gift giving will necessarily distract us from the real reason for the season and the true meaning of Christmas - our Savior Jesus Christ. But why must we assume that giving gifts is in any way antithetical to celebrating Jesus Christ? Every time we give a gift at Christmas, we are acting out in our own crude and imperfect way the very practice of gift giving that led to the birth of Jesus Christ and that typified the entirety of His life and mission and purpose. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). We practice giving gifts of toys and stocking stuffers and ugly sweaters so that we can prepare ourselves to give the weightier gifts of judgement, mercy, and faith. And we practice receiving the gifts that are unexpected, unexciting, and perhaps unwanted so that we can be prepared to receive from our Heavenly Father those gifts that in the short term seem to bring us nothing but pain and confusion and grief. I honestly can think of no better way to honor the sacrifice and gift of our Heavenly Father to give up His Only Begotten Son, and the sacrifice and gift of our Savior Jesus Christ to give up His own life, than by giving our time and our talents and our resources to show our love and affection by picking out or hand making gifts for those around us. I hope that we can all get caught up in the Spirit of giving this Christmas season and by so doing draw closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, whose gifts to us are the reason for the season.
