I was sitting in a church service today as the pastor was talking about the freshness and life his father would try to bring to Christmas every year. Suddenly I started thinking about my future family (Lord willing) and how I would instill in my children an earnest understanding and appreciation for Christmas. What is it I want them to learn? What is important, and how do the various elements of Christmas relate? What do the trappings have to do with Christ, and how will I relate those values to my kids?
My first thought was classic: we give gifts to others as a way of remembering God's gift to us--eternal life through Jesus Christ. We give gifts to show people that we love them. My beef with such occasions has always been a developed misunderstanding that such gifts are earned or inherently deserved. Is that the kind of gift we are commemorating at Christmas?
That's when it hit me. Kid's are not just allowed to believe that they deserve gifts, they are taught to believe they deserve gifts. When we talk about Santa Clause, what do we say he puts in the stockings of "naughty" children? Coal! Bad kids are not deserving of toys and candy and such. And how many of you parents have threatened your children with "no presents for Christmas if you don't behave"? Gifts are earned, not given out of an unquenchable love.
Is that the kind of gift God gave us?
The answer is emphatically "NO!" Do you know what we were like when Jesus came? Do you know how we behaved, or more accurately, misbehaved?
We were despicable in our arrogance and our pride. We were filthy in our lies, lusts and licentious acts. We not only lived for ourselves, we lived in complete rebellion and hatred toward God.
Would you give that child a present on Christmas morning? Would you give him the greatest and most precious thing in your possession?
God did.
Don't get me wrong. Love also disciplines when it is needed. If it did not, it would not be very loving. God's gift to us was the best thing for us even and especially in our rebellious state. I don't know that many of us could say the same thing of those colorfully wrapped presents under the tree. There is a difference between God's gift and our's.
But before you start throwing around those often empty Christmas threats, let's think about what we are trying to do. If in our gift giving we are trying to demonstrate God's complete, perfect and unchanging love for us--in spite of ourselves, and our similarly unconditional love for our children, family and friends, then how do we demonstrate that through our actions and our words? I'm not saying this is always the answer, but perhaps sometimes it means giving the most rotten and rude person the greatest gift they have ever received.
Think about it.
And ask yourself: What do you think you really deserve?
