As Christians we lament how commercial Christmas has become. Yet despite our lament, we succumb to the frantic consumerism of the season, buying gifts for people who have enough already and in return receiving gifts we do not need.
Why?
As much as we know Jesus to be unaffected by the mindset that has made Christmas so commercial, we have been affected. We take the path of least resistance calculating it costs us less to buy presents than to be like Jesus in our world. We resist the grace which characterized Jesus from the manger onwards:
he became poor so that others might be rich.
But I think another reason that has us buying gifts is we undervalue the real gifts we are to one another.
Who can put a value on the gift of somebody praying us through a dark time or standing with us when everyone else has given up?
Who can put a value on the gift we are to others by affirming their divine spark or sticking with them through periods of unemployment or illness?
Who can put a value on those who by faith venture into new territory at great personal cost, breaking new ground that will benefit future generations?
What price can be attached to ‘the faithful wounds of a friend’, or on those who work for peace in troubled communities, or to the wise counsel of someone who really cares, or to a prophetic word that keeps us going when we’d otherwise give up?
Put in that context, we begin to see the shortcomings of gifts we wrap.
Nothing Jesus gives us can be gift-wrapped. His gifts are found where no one expects gifts to be found. The woman who finds his forgiveness just as she's about to be stoned for adultery; the mother whose young son is restored to life again after his funeral procession had begun; the criminal who is guaranteed paradise by the person dying on the cross next to his. These are the real gifts of Christmas regardless on what day they’re given!
Thinking of the Christmas gift the prophet Simeon gave to Mary foretelling the life story of her son; that because of him: the deepest thoughts of many will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul, the real gifts of Christmas are not sentimental but filled with truth and grace.
These are the gifts that last, the gifts that began with Christ's birth. If we could sell them we would, but God be praised, they can't be bought or sold!
They are exchanged solely by the grace Christ freely gives.
Freely you have received, freely give.
Merry Christmas to you and to all those who are the real gifts in your life!
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