Friday, December 19, 2014

Three gifts...

                                    My Wonderful Wife and I did some high intensity interval shopping yesterday and were able to get the majority of our Christmas shopping done for the three McMonkeys...
         Sounds more impressive than it is. All we needed to purchase was a half dozen bananas....
                                                                   Two each...
                                               That cut the holiday budget way down...
                                           Actually, this year has been kind of nice. No giant high price " things" on any of their lists. Nick didn't even make a list. Jake, our nine year old still says he wants whatever is on all the commercials , but funny thing is, his heart doesn't seem to be in it...
                                      We've been speaking more often, in the last few years about smaller Christmas's. Three presents apiece was the Wonderful Wife's suggestion. The wisdom in it was that since Jesus Himself only received three gifts, that that should be enough for anyone else...
                                                But we never held too closely to that one...
                                                   That idea got me thinking... 
                                                         Me and my brain...
                          So I started looking into what the Bible says about giving on Christmas...
                                 Were we doing it right? We hear so much about how commercialism has hijacked the spirit of Christmas in our communities. It is so hard to try to keep the Christmas spirit and the true spirit of Christmas giving in today's world. I realized, though that I had no actual idea exactly what that was...
                                                          So, I hit "The Book"...
                                      Truthfully it was "The Book" on my 1st generation IPad.
                                                  Hope that's not cheating...
                                           And the only situations that I came across about gift giving on that first Christmas had to do with Gods gift to us in Jesus and the gifts brought by the three wise men...
                                              I could not find an instance of the shepherds, Mary or Joseph exchanging presents. Nothing written about those in the inn or even the wisemen trading gifts between each other....
                                                       Now that is confusing...
                                                 And again, I started thinking...
                                         If this whole season of Christmas has absolutely nothing to do with an exchange of gifts, what was it? I know it is a celebration of our Saviors birth and everything He would subsequently do. I know that we celebrate that gift...
                                I looked closer and came to the conclusion in my little mind, that maybe it is deeper than those three physical gifts that the wisemen brought of gold, frankinsence and myrrh ...
                                  I thought of what it took for those three to end up at the stable of Christ's birth.
                                        How much Faith it must have taken to decide to leave the comfort of their own lands, in anticipation of a long and weary journey that most in their world would have scoffed at.
                                       How difficult it must have been to choose obedience and prepare for that journey. It would not be easy or comfortable or short. They took the action required and went, with no earthly guarantee that it would accomplish anything... Faith and Obedience...
                              They did bring physical gifts to honor this newborn King.
                     Not something you could get at Walmart, but treasures. All three gave Sacrificially...
                                   And in looking at this I realized that most everything I thought for a very long time was wrong...
                                 The only Gifts recorded that men gave were not to each other...
                                     They were given, in honor, to a newborn King...
             And the true gifts were not the physical articles, but were the gifts Jesus still desires from us.
                                                                Strong Faith...
                                                       Unhesitating Obedience...
                                                            Sacraficial Giving...
                                                                     
                              I don't think any of that happens under a Christmas tree. 
                                 
                          I'm not a Bible scholar or even a decent student of It, so don't take any of this on face value. Open up your own copy of " The Book" and check for yourselves...
                                    I do know that today I'm looking at things a little bit differently.
                                           Our tree still stands tall and beautiful. The gifts we will be exchanging are still upstairs in our bedroom, waiting for the inevitable wrapping. I am happily looking forward to the traditional opening of presents Christmas morning...
                      And I personally believe that Jesus still smiles down on us, a bit, as we celebrate his birth.
                                     But I don't think anymore, that this type of celebration is the kind that He requires..
                                       I'm thinking that it is a nice family or social tradition, but absent of the important values that those three wisemen demonstrated...
                                            Not quite sure how I'm going to reconcile all this...
                                   Truth be told, I probably won't. The odds are that I will spend a lot of time pondering all this and saying a few prayers. I will bumble it all thru my little brain and try to keep an open heart... Open enough to listen for a still, small voice...
                If anything ever does get reconciled, it will have nothing to do with my efforts...
                                                 Maybe today all that I'm really supposed to do is realize that what I am offering is not what my Savior desires... That maybe the point of this journey of my mind, is to acknowledge the measuring stick, the benchmark, that was demonstrated by three men, two thousand years ago..
                                                                 Strong Faith...
                                                         Unhesitating Obedience...
                                                               Sacraficial Giving...
                                      
                 And maybe, be willing to let Him work inside me to strengthen those values, inside me..
                    And then be willing to demonstrate them, by action, as they are given...

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