Dwight Fletcher | Christmas breeze - Gifts of Christmas - Part I

We all love gifts at Christmas. If you have gone to the shopping malls recently, you would have seen people shopping for just the right gift. They want to find the right store with the right gift at the right price. Finding a good deal is extremely important for many people. This is because gifts convey several messages.

1. Gifts convey a message about the giver's economic, social, and moral status in life. For example, if a gift is an expensive one, we generally conclude that the giver is rich. If a gift has religious bearing, we often think that the giver is a spiritual person.

2. Gifts convey the value and importance of the recipient to the giver.

The gifts of the wise men to Jesus, for example, conveyed their estimation of Jesus. The gift of gold symbolised that Jesus is king. The gift of incense symbolised that Jesus is God. And the gift of myrrh symbolised that Jesus is our Redeemer.

3. Gifts are given to strengthen or to mend a broken relationship. The story of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 32:13-21 illustrates this point very clearly. Here we find Jacob selecting precious gifts to be given to his brother to pacify Esau's anger and ultimately restore their broken relationship - it is a symbol of goodwill.

We all have different ways of evaluating the rightness of a gift. So, what makes a gift the right gift? Some people believe that:

1. The right gift is the expensive gift, meaning the more financially valuable the gift is, the closer it moves to the category of being right.

2. The right gift meets a need of the recipient. Hence, the most expensive gift may not be the right gift if the recipient does not need it; but if it is needed then it is the perfect gift.

3. The right gift is the one given with pure motives. So, if the only reason a gift is given is for the giver to receive praise, then the gift is not perfect. The heart of the giver must be right for the gift to be right.

The story is told of a man who punished his three-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and gave it to him. He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found the box empty. He yelled at her telling her that there must be something in the box for it to be a gift. The little girl looked up at him with tears in her, eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy, it is not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy."

PRICELESS GIFT

From this story, we see that the gift came in the form of an empty box, but the motive behind it was priceless. A gift may not measure up to the material expectations of our modern mind, but the love that it bears is incomparable. What makes a gift the right gift? Is it the right price? To some extent, yes! Is it the right solution to a particular need? Of course! Should it come from the right motives? Definitely!

As Christians we cannot afford to get trapped in the mindset of the world we live in. If we are to be honest, for many of us the financial value of an item or what material value it will add to us is of critical importance. Sometimes with these things as the emphasis, we often focus on our surface wants, not our deeper needs. Could this be one of the reasons why we have lost the reverence for Christ and the great appreciation for the gift He is to the world?

Do you know that this culture of gift giving at Christmas was because of God's gift of Jesus to us? Jesus Christ, God's gift to man, is the right gift! He is expensive, He meets our need for eternal life and He was given with the right motive. If we apply the three criteria that we have discussed about the perfect gift, we will find that the gift of God in Jesus surpasses our human expectations.

Join us next week as we explore the perfect gift, Jesus Christ, and apply the three criteria of expense, need and motive.