Giving Or Exchanging

‘Tis the season!

Yes, it is, and everywhere I look I am reminded that Christmas can’t be far away. The beautifully decorated trees, the multicolored sparkling lights, the colorfully wrapped packages, all shout out that my shopping days are limited.

At some point in your life during the holiday season, perhaps, you have experienced something called a “gift exchange.” If you are one of the limited few who have never experienced this, it is pretty much as the name implies — you bring a gift, and you receive a gift in exchange for what you have brought. Now the process of how this takes place may vary from party to party, and I have seen various rules applied, but the end result is, everyone trades their gift for the gift of someone else. Most of the time there are price guidelines given, in hopes that everyone leaves with something of equal, or similar, value to the gift that they brought.

So, have you made your list?

Have you checked it twice?

How often do we make our gift list based on whether or not we received a gift from some particular person the previous year? If “they” didn’t give us a gift last year, it should be okay not to add them to our list this year. Right?

Let’s face it, most of the time we are not really giving gifts, but merely exchanging or swapping gifts, with family or friends who do the same, in return.

And when we receive the gift, well, you know the conversation . . .
“Oh, you didn’t have to do that.”
“You really shouldn’t have.”

Several years ago, while working at a television station, I was involved with a program called “Letters To Santa.” It was a program very similar to the “Angel Tree,” whereby people were able to provide Christmas gifts for those less fortunate. The families that were struggling wrote a letter to the station with their wishes, and after a screening process, the letters were made available for the public to pick up and provide Christmas for those families. 

I will never forget one particular year, when some of the letters we received at the station were not picked up. My boss made an executive decision on Christmas Eve that she and I would take the remaining letters, go shopping for those families, and then personally deliver the gifts.

On a wing and a prayer, like a speeding bullet, we raced out the door on what appeared to be an impossible mission, late in the afternoon, yes, on Christmas Eve.

Racing down the aisles of the stores, with breakneck speed, dodging those frantic last-minute shoppers and items cluttering our path, we completed our lists, but not a minute too soon. Now the darkness of the evening had arrived and we set our sights on dark, unknown, mysterious areas in the community that were unfamiliar to each of us. And there was no GPS.

Well, it is an understatement for me to say that I was not prepared for the environment that we delivered those gifts to that evening. To that point, I was not even aware that we had people in our city that lived in the conditions that we found.

But, it was a Christmas that I will never forget, as I looked into the despondent eyes, and saw the desperate expressions of those people, who had all but given up hope, it became a turning point in my life. In a moment’s time, their faces began to light up, and for the first time, I felt what it was like to give something to someone who would never be able to give back to me.

Please don’t take this wrong and allow this to dampen your spirit of buying and exchanging gifts with your family and friends. I’m not saying not to do this. I’m just saying if you want to experience a joy like no other, this year consider giving a gift to someone who has never given a gift to you, and is not able to give you something in return. Not just someone who “will not” buy you a gift, but someone who “cannot” buy you a gift.

If you have never done this before, I promise you a feeling unlike anything you have ever experienced, and Christmas will never be the same again for you.

Don’t allow the tradition of the season, to cause you to forget the reason for the season.

God loved us so much, that He gave His only son. He gave. This was not a swap or exchange, for there is nothing that we could exchange.

He loved!

He gave!

The first Christmas the Wise Men brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to give to Jesus. (Matthew 2:11)

Those were gifts they gave. It was not a gift exchange.

Remembering the words the Lord Jesus Himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)

My prayer is that you and your family are abundantly blessed and surrounded this Christmas season by peace, joy and love as you, not only, receive, but share the greatest gift that was ever given — Jesus, the real reason for the season!

Merry Christmas,

Still Believing!