Sunday, August 12, 2012

An Issue with Christmas

I guess I’m in a bit of a cynical season right now. In last week’s blog post I chipped at the concept of always praying before you eat. You’ll have to read it to get my point. This week, I thought it would be a good time to rip on Christmas for a while…it is August and all. I was thinking that my jaded perspective of the holiday should come out before Walmart and Kohl’s fill their shelves with Christmas décor.

You need to know that I do love the idea of celebrating the fact that God sent his Son in human skin to live on our planet. I think it’s an amazing thing that God put himself in the vulnerable position of being a human baby who would grow into a man; and that man, who lived perfectly, would die because of my sins. Pretty cool!

It’s the commercial Christmas stuff I hate. Here’s a short list of stuff I really don’t like in December (October, November, and January even more):  Santa Claus, Christmas commercials (especially the Target lady), stupid music, the colors green and red together, sleigh bells. Yeah… I don’t even like bells. But there’s another part of the Christmas season that frustrates me—it’s the gift exchanges. I just don’t get it. Follow me through this scene.

Sometime in November, there’s a family e-mail that goes out saying, “Send us your Christmas list!” Christmas list? Really? I have to make a list of stuff for you to consider buying so you can surprise me? But, as a cooperative family member I send my list and then I go shopping. I start with my brother-in-law, while he starts his shopping for me. He ends up buying me a screwdriver set and I’ll get him a flashlight. We then spend time wrapping our stuff from our shopping spree with goofy looking paper and Scotch tape, put them under a plastic tree to wait for a few weeks, then give these gifts to each other after gorging ourselves at dinner. Individually, we open these presents with fake anticipation and polite gratitude. The flashlight that I so carefully chose for my brother-in-law finds its way into a junk draw before New Year’s Day.

I know… I’m jaded and my cynicism is harsh, so what’s my point? Gifts are important. They need to be communications of love. They need to be something that tells the receiver, “I know you. I love you. I think about you a lot.” One of the best gifts I’ve ever received was from my wife just a couple of Christmases ago. Out of the blue, she bought me a new wedding ring. After 20-plus years of marriage, my old band (purchased in 1987 at Witmark for $40) was looking pretty rough. She gave me a new band that I love. What made the gift really special was the note she wrote that was delivered with the gift. The details of the note are intimate and private to me but in essence, she affirmed yet again, “I love you. I know you and I think about you a lot.” Receiving good gifts draws you closer to the giver. It feels great to be known, to be loved, and to be thought of so much.

God’s gifts are perfect! They cry out to us from Heaven God’s message of, “I love you. I know you and I think of you constantly.”

When the Apostle Paul wanted to introduce the One, True God to some people who lived culturally and philosophically different than he, he started with the beautiful gift of Creation. God knows his creations and he wants his creations to know him.

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. Acts 17.24-27

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