The Only Gift that Matters

Christmas is a time for gift-giving.  Christmas gifts first appear when the wise men present gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Christ child. Yet in the gospel narrative, the Magi do not arrive until almost two years after Jesus is born. Jesus is a toddler. Perhaps he is even speaking. That changes the story, doesn’t it? 

Furthermore Jesus and his folks are still residing in Bethlehem according the gospel account. Talk about overstaying your welcome at a relative’s house! At least they have moved out of the stable. The story says they are now in a house. Of course, preachers do not mention these details. It would disrupt the traditional narrative and get people questioning what else the church is not telling them. 

Back to the gifts. I am the gift-wrapper in my house. My wife is the card sender, and I am the gift-wrapper. It is just the way our roles have developed over the years. I wrap all the gifts. I learned how to wrap presents when I was young and worked in my family’s retail businesses.  

I used to be good at it, but I am not the best gift-wrapper any more. I don't worry if the paper is not cut straight or the tape is not neat. I don’t use ribbons or bows any longer. I don’t even put name tags on the presents. I write the name of the recipient on the wrapping paper with a marker.   

My gift wrapping may not be perfect, but I don’t get any complaints. That is because it is content of the gift that is important. I heard a sermon this Advent entitled “What’s Inside That Gift?” The theme of the homily was that we are the gift. The central idea was that the best gift we can give is to be the best version of ourselves. This gift of ourselves needs to be opened. 

It was a good sermon. I judge the quality of a sermon by whether it gets me thinking beyond what the preacher explicitly states. A good sermon gets my mind moving in new directions. If my mind wanders during the delivery of the message, that is a good thing! It means that the sermon is working! My mind was wandering last Sunday. 

My mind went to the prologue of John’s Gospel where it says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” I know that the Greek text literally says that the Word "dwelt in us.” That is another thing that most preachers will not tell you. We are the wrapping. God is the present. The apostle Paul uses this same imagery, saying, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”  

When people were looking around them for signs of the coming Kingdom of God, Jesus told them, “The Kingdom of God is within you!” What people are seeking for is inside us. The only real Christmas gift that matters is God in us. God is the True Self residing in the wrapping of these human selves. And God, as the apostle tells us, is Love. 

The Gift of the Magi, as O. Henry so beautifully expressed in his 1905 short story of that title, is not a physical present. It is the love expressed by the giving. Unconditional love is what people really want. Physical gifts are imperfect representations of the Gift of Love. As the Christmas hymn says, “Love Came Down at Christmas.” May Divine Love come to earth through you.