Christmas is a gift-giving holiday. No news flash there. It makes sense; it’s part of the Christmas story. Matthew 2:11 tells us that the wise men presented Jesus with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. It’s also a key part of Christian theology; John 3:16 tells us that God gave us the gift of his Son, Jesus, and Romans 6:23 says that “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
As much as it makes sense and as much as it is simply a part of Christianity, we get all messed up with gifts. It’s easy for us to dismiss gift giving as pure materialism. We cringe at how commercialized Christmas has become, beginning with advertisements as early as Labor Day (really, I saw them) and continuing through “black Friday” and coasting through after-Christmas sales and finally sliding into recurring bills throughout the next year.
Now, don’t take this the wrong way, but there’s a part of me that thinks it might be good for us to be gung-ho about giving gifts. I certainly don’t mean that we need to go into debt to buy all kinds of stuff that we might not really need; however, it’s probably healthy for us to harbor a desire to give expensive gifts because of the gift that God has given us.
The fact of the matter is that simple gifts are not necessarily inexpensive. We know that diamonds and gold are simple but expensive gifts. We must never forget that God gave a world full of sinners his only Son as a sacrifice for our sins, a simple yet priceless gift. It was a gift that none of could ever afford and one that should be at the heart of our desire to give.
As we celebrate the ultimate gift, the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, let our hearts be overwhelmed by God’s eternally perfect generosity. As we consider going into debt to give gifts to our loved ones, let us remember Romans 13:8 “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.”