GIFT GIVING AND THE BEST GIFT OF ALL TIME

Mikayla, my 15 year old, told me about her friend who was shocked to find out that her mother buys all her own Christmas gifts from her husband and then acts surprised when she opens them on Christmas day. I find this hilarious. I am not surprised that someone would do it, I find it so funny that the teenager would be so shocked.

Gift giving and receiving have always been very important to me. On my love language score receiving gifts is at the top. That is all good and great until you marry someone whose gift receiving love language is at the bottom. I have to say Kent has gotten better over the years because he knows it is important to me.

When gift receiving is important to you it is very easy to be disappointed at Christmas, or birthdays or anniversaries or any other time of the year. It is important for us to know we are loved and that is expressed through gifts and we find it frustrating when we don’t receive good gifts. For those of you who gift receiving is not important I know you are saying, “Just get over it and go buy your own gift.” And most of us do. When shopping for Christmas I often operate on the one for you and one for me principle. My daughter, another gift receiver person, operates the same way and I can’t blame her. I heard a statistic that said 27% of people buy gifts for themselves while out shopping for Christmas. All I have to say is, what’s wrong withthe other 73%? Most of them must be lying.

So, what’s the point? The point is, for those of us who love to give and receive gifts (and even for those who don’t) it is important to remember the greatest gift ever given – a Savior, Jesus Christ. Isn’t that the point of Christmas, to remember that God gave us all His Son as the gift we needed the most?

Jesus describes God as the Father who gives “good gifts” (Matthew 5:11). God the Father is the best gift giver ever. There is nothing that mankind needed more than a Savior, someone who took away our sins and restores our relationship with God, and God gave us that in His Son. What a great, awesome and perfect gift!

So, as you are out shopping, whether you love it or hate it, remember that you have been given the most perfect gift, and it wasn’t your George Foreman grill, it is Jesus who came as a baby and died as a man for you and for me.

What do you do during this time of year to help you remember this great gift?