What is your favorite Christmas memory? No doubt that question causes a flood of memories from days gone by to fill your mind. Most of us recall the simpler days of youth when Christmas meant you got a vacation from school and Christmas presents (hopefully lots of them). Those were the days when your greatest worry was that the package you were excitedly tearing into would contain something horribly unsatisfying like underwear. I mean, really, who gives underwear for Christmas? (Yes, I did receive underwear for Christmas…more than once…but I’m getting counseling.)
In spite of the seemingly irresistible urge by some family members to inundate me with undergarments, I have many wonderful memories of Christmas past. I remember the year that I found my parent’s stash of gifts that they had hidden in their closet. I went back several times trying to figure out which gifts belonged to me. (By the way, I did an excellent job of acting surprised when I opened the gifts on Christmas day.) I recall the many sleepless Christmas Eve nights listening to the radio as they “tracked” Santa flying around the globe. It was so hard to sleep knowing that in a few hours I was going to open the gifts that had relentlessly taunted me with their existence for weeks. I remember waking up ridiculously early every Christmas morning and doing all that I could to wake my parents gently so as not to start the day by incurring the wrath of sleep-deprived progenitors. I remember the torture of our family’s tradition of taking turns to open gifts so that everyone could see what everyone else got. Let me be honest, I didn’t much care about what my brothers and sister got for Christmas. I only wanted to know what was in my Christmas packages. It was agony waiting for my turn to come around again, but it was good for me.
I’ll never forget the year our family Christmas tree had become a bit dilapidated and needed a little help to stand up straight. My dad, being the resourceful man that he is, grabbed a present and put it between the wall and the tree to force it into a fully upright position. The thing is, nobody knew what he had done and on Christmas morning he forgot it was there. A few days later, we kids noticed the resplendent radiance of another Christmas present shimmering through the sparse branches of the decrepit tree. We pulled it out and, low and behold, it had my name on it. I was honestly afraid that my parents were going to make me wait until the next Christmas to open it. I mean, it’s against the law to open Christmas gifts on any other day than Christmas, right? But, to my pleasant surprise and immense relief, my parents let me open it. It was like Christmas all over again…at least for me. That was a great year.
As I grew older, Christmas started to change for me. After I got my first job working at Sonic Drive-In (love the onion rings), I had the resources to actually buy gifts for people, so my older brother and I decided that we would purchase a microwave together for our mom. Today, microwave ovens are cheap and considered to be an indispensable tool in the kitchen, but in those days they were a bit of a luxury item and, due to the fact that it was a relatively new technology, they were very expensive. My brother and I bought our mom a top-of-the-line microwave that cost us nearly $450. On Christmas morning, we covered it with a blanket, carried it into the living room, and, after a short speech, we unveiled it for her. I remember it as if it happened yesterday. My mom looked at the gift and started crying. She couldn’t believe it. That year changed everything for me. That was the year that I discovered the truth in the words attributed to Jesus in Acts 20:35 when He said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” That was the year that I discovered that the joy of Christmas is found in giving, not receiving.
Christmas is a celebration of the fact that God, out of His heart of love, gave His Son, Jesus, to redeem us from the clutches of sin. Christmas is a celebration of the fact that the Father gives us life instead of the death that we so richly deserve. Christmas is a time for us to respond to God’s generosity by being generous with others. Christmas is a time for us to give because we have received. But most of all, Christmas is a time for us to respond to God’s great gift in the only way that makes any sense – by giving ourselves to Him. Paul said it like this:
Romans 12:1 (NLT) - And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
So, as you “hustle and bustle” your way through this Christmas season searching for the perfect gifts to give to the people you love, don’t forget the One who has been supernaturally generous with you. You have within your power to give Him the perfect gift. The one thing Jesus really wants for Christmas is you. As far as He is concerned, that’s the perfect gift.
