A Blessed and Merry Christmas!

What constitutes a good Christmas for you? Fifty percent of the gifts you receive you like and will actually use? Is it less or more? In this season of giving, somehow even though it is “the thought that counts”, the culture is obsessed with the gifts we receive and what we do with them. But what about the giver?

Have you ever thought you found the perfect gift for someone only to see the happy expression of receiving a gift freeze on their face as they try to find something nice to say? In that circumstance both the giver and the receiver are disappointed. The receiver wonders what the giver was thinking when they picked out that gift while the giver is wondering why the receiver does not like it. After a few experiences like that, it’s easy just to give up and give gift cards so the receiver can buy whatever he/she wants or needs.

It’s one thing when a gift is not functioning or too small/large. But sometimes, if you give a gift a chance, you end up liking it much more than when you first received it. Sometimes other people’s perspective is deeper than we care to admit and their gifts do have purpose and meaning even when we don’t think so upon receiving them. It’s the same with God’s gift to us: His Son, Jesus.

Jesus is a gift in the truest sense of the meaning: a voluntary transfer between two people without compensation. He puts His glory aside and takes the form of one of his creatures, man, with the sole purpose of dying in order to save us. He spent His time on earth to teach us how to live as the Father wants us to live, in His love. We may think that when we “put Jesus on”, His ways may not fit us well. But if we keep trying, He may just become our favorite gift of all.

God knows us much better that we know ourselves and the gift of Jesus fits every person perfectly. It’s only when we cast God and His gift aside, in favor of what we think we need and want, that we find ourselves less than satisfied. Perhaps Jesus will be a gift we not only treasure, but give to others as well.