The Gift of Giving
Well, I warned you that I could feel a blogging itch coming on. So here you go. Just my thoughts for the season (this week). Merry Christmas!
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I love giving gifts. In fact, I love giving gifts far more than I love receiving them. My preference has always been to pick out a gift which uniquely speaks to the recipient; something useful, meaningful which in the future brings our special relationship to mind, hopefully with a smile. Consequently, I’m not a big fan of the gift card/cash gift thing. It’s hard for me to imagine the recipient feeling a special connection with the giver from a self-selected gift. But again, that’s just me.
In my gift-giving career, I’ve probably encountered just about every possible experience. There have been the gifts which were a huge hit and some which, while useful, may not have been as “fun” as others. There were those gifts I have given which I thought were really great gifts and they wound up either exchanged or in the back of a cabinet, never to see the light of day again. And some of those gifts were even regifted back to me with the passing of time.
It’s those gifts which I so carefully chose for the recipient, the ones that I thought were so perfect, useful, meaningful, and never got used or appreciated, those are the gifts which brought such a sense of disappointment. And nothing brought greater joy than to see the perfect gift not only accepted, but embraced, used and truly appreciated by the receiver.
I have to believe that God’s gift-giving experience is pretty on point to our own human experience. Consider how much He loves to give gifts to us. Of course, there was the gift of His Son and His monumental sacrifice on our behalf in order for us to attain the gift of salvation. Then there are the spiritual gifts, the gifts of skills and talents, the myriad of blessings which blanket our days. The list goes on. Big or small, the gifts we receive from God are all carefully chosen by Him as the perfect present, unique for the receiver, personal, useful, meaningful and above all, chosen to bring the Giver to mind with its use.
How do we receive God’s gifts? Do we give them a cursory acknowledgment; use them to our benefit with no thought of the effort taken by the Giver? Do we try to exchange our gift because, while we appreciate the thought, it’s just not exactly what we think we want? Do we accept His gifts and then push them far back in the cabinet of our lives to collect dust and perhaps deteriorate from lack of use? Or worst of all, do we ever try to “regift” something to God, forgetting who gave it to us in the first place, trying to pawn it off as an offering of our own making? I can’t even imagine how saddened our Giver must be in such cases given the perfection of thought which went into the selection of the gift by the One who only gives good things to His children. And how disappointing it must be when He chose the gift specifically as a reminder of our relationship together.
So what do I want for Christmas? I want to be a gracious recipient of my Lord’s gifts, receiving them, acknowledging the thoughtfulness of His perfect choice, using them, cherishing them as He intended, in such a way that His gift-giving experience with me brings great joy to His heart. What do you want for Christmas?
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I love giving gifts. In fact, I love giving gifts far more than I love receiving them. My preference has always been to pick out a gift which uniquely speaks to the recipient; something useful, meaningful which in the future brings our special relationship to mind, hopefully with a smile. Consequently, I’m not a big fan of the gift card/cash gift thing. It’s hard for me to imagine the recipient feeling a special connection with the giver from a self-selected gift. But again, that’s just me.
In my gift-giving career, I’ve probably encountered just about every possible experience. There have been the gifts which were a huge hit and some which, while useful, may not have been as “fun” as others. There were those gifts I have given which I thought were really great gifts and they wound up either exchanged or in the back of a cabinet, never to see the light of day again. And some of those gifts were even regifted back to me with the passing of time.
It’s those gifts which I so carefully chose for the recipient, the ones that I thought were so perfect, useful, meaningful, and never got used or appreciated, those are the gifts which brought such a sense of disappointment. And nothing brought greater joy than to see the perfect gift not only accepted, but embraced, used and truly appreciated by the receiver.
I have to believe that God’s gift-giving experience is pretty on point to our own human experience. Consider how much He loves to give gifts to us. Of course, there was the gift of His Son and His monumental sacrifice on our behalf in order for us to attain the gift of salvation. Then there are the spiritual gifts, the gifts of skills and talents, the myriad of blessings which blanket our days. The list goes on. Big or small, the gifts we receive from God are all carefully chosen by Him as the perfect present, unique for the receiver, personal, useful, meaningful and above all, chosen to bring the Giver to mind with its use.
How do we receive God’s gifts? Do we give them a cursory acknowledgment; use them to our benefit with no thought of the effort taken by the Giver? Do we try to exchange our gift because, while we appreciate the thought, it’s just not exactly what we think we want? Do we accept His gifts and then push them far back in the cabinet of our lives to collect dust and perhaps deteriorate from lack of use? Or worst of all, do we ever try to “regift” something to God, forgetting who gave it to us in the first place, trying to pawn it off as an offering of our own making? I can’t even imagine how saddened our Giver must be in such cases given the perfection of thought which went into the selection of the gift by the One who only gives good things to His children. And how disappointing it must be when He chose the gift specifically as a reminder of our relationship together.
So what do I want for Christmas? I want to be a gracious recipient of my Lord’s gifts, receiving them, acknowledging the thoughtfulness of His perfect choice, using them, cherishing them as He intended, in such a way that His gift-giving experience with me brings great joy to His heart. What do you want for Christmas?
posted by Kim Hannay at 1:37 PM
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