I just watched the music video “The Christmas Shoes” by Newsong. (And yes, I cried. I admit it. I am a real mush ball when it comes to Christmas. I even have to wipe my eyes every year when I watch Alistair Sim in Dickens’s Christmas Carol).
I also really get into wrapping Christmas presents. I measure the paper so it is just the right size, and then painstakingly apply the color coordinated ribbons and bows. Each gift has to look just so.
I am not sure where this trait in me came from. It could be from my experience as a kid, where we (I came from a family of six children) were each given two dollars and dozens of pages of “stamps” and set free at the local “Holiday Gas Station Store” to do our Christmas shopping. In those days you could buy your siblings a five-pack package of Wrigley’s spearmint gum for just 9¢ plus 4 pages of stamps. Or I could get my dad a big bottle of Aqua Velva for just 19¢ and 4 pages of stamps. (My mom usually got the bottle of “Wave Set”) I remember by the time I was in grade 7 and working at a part time job, I had enough money of my own to spend 89¢ on a jar of pickled herring for my grandpa. That was really special!! And of course the way this gum, and after-shave, and “Wave Set” and herring were wrapped and presented on Christmas Eve was extremely important. It took a lot of creativity and Christmas paper (used more than once) to make these the best gifts ever.
I read a quote lately that said, “The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.” I guess I have always realized the truth of that phrase, and that is why I put as much emphasis on the presentation as I do the gift. I wonder if God thinks this way too. I know that often we emphasize the “lowliness” of the birth of Jesus, him being born in a stable and all. But think of it; when God sent news to the shepherds, he didn’t hold anything back. He didn’t just send a little ensemble. Nooooo. He sent the whole stinkin’ choir! Talk about a nice package. And the double whammy is this: The gift was even better that the package! Like my dad always said, “You can never out give God.”
As you give and receive those presents this year, whether big or small, fancy or plain, think anew about the best wrapped gift ever: God himself, sending us His Son Jesus.
Merry Christmas