I think that Christmas is about gifts.  Wait and hear me out before you jump on the materialism bandwagon.  In our country, we may have become over exuberant in our holiday spending, but I do not believe gift giving is the problem.  I think we love to give because we are made in the image of the first gift-giver.  After all, gift giving was his idea.  He gave us the Earth and everything in it.  He must have thought all about what we would love to receive. 

Consider what it must be like for God to ‘shop.’  Everything imaginable at his fingertips waiting to be breathed into existence.  I am sure he could not wait to see the look on Adam’s face when he saw the gift of creation.  How surprised must the creation of clay have been to see an elephant or a baboon for the first time.  The delicate butterfly or the sloth…what was God thinking making an animal that is so slow on land but can swim super fast?  How does that work anyway?  Talk about an extravagant gift!  It’s like he could not decide what to get so he got it all.  Materialism?  I don’t think so.  I think he was enthusiastically ecstatic.  He desired to see his children blessed with abundance from his own hand the same as we do.  The shear joy on their faces and wonderment in their eyes is enough to sustain us for a whole year.  That is why we go overboard with our giving to try to capture that feeling of warmth. 

God’s kids did not appreciate his gifts fully.  They rejected him.  So he sent an even more amazing gift…his son.  This one was not as beautiful.  It was bloody.  The eyes did not recognize what a tremendous sacrifice the Father gave.  Only a few knew the love of the Son.  The grace was incomprehensible…it still is.  It is a matter of acceptance not understanding.  Faith not sight.

Then God created me and you.  He gave us gifts of our very own.  Mine is words.  Yours might be song or hospitality.  You may be a preacher or an artist.  Every one of us has some expression of Him within us.  He designed it that way because he is the gift giver.  It is who he is.  He cannot wait for us to open our gifts.  He longs to see joyous looks on our faces as we realize his heart for us. He longs for us to express our gift to glorify him…but instead we toss it away and play with the box.  We say it is not good enough, or that it is too plain, or not plain enough.  We find some reason not to use our gifts.  I never knew others would like to read my words.  I still find it hard to believe that someone might want to read a book if I wrote it.  Yet here I am at Christmas pondering gifts and God.  We are made in his image so we should be enthusiastically ecstatic to give the gifts he has given us.  The celebration of the ultimate gift from the ultimate gift giver is more than one day a year.  It is something he longs for daily.  Our faces should light up each time our gifts flow out to those around us…his does. He smiles as we become gift givers like him.   Merry Christmas!

As for my blood…the numbers are going up so we are waiting.  For now the transfusion has been delayed.  I thank you all for your prayers…keep it up!!!  What a gift you all are to me!!!