Homemade Christmas

We are trying something new in our household this Christmas season. A couple of months ago, our family decided that we should do a name exchange. However, instead of buying things for the person whose name we drew, we would have to make something for that person. This is something that Claire’s family in Michigan has been doing for a number of years now and it always looked very appealing.

Well, very appealing except to one person………. me! Now it’s not that I was opposed to it in principle. I think it’s a very special way of giving. Nonetheless, after names were all exchanged my daughter looked at me and said, almost as an afterthought, “This is going to be hard for you, isn’t it, Dad.”

She knows me well. It’s not that I am unwilling. I just don’t seem to have a great deal of creative ability when it comes to making things. I can make things. For example, I’ve put up shelves in our garage and hung a closet door in our house, but these do not exactly reflect fine craftsmanship.

As far as making something artistic, anyone who has seen me draw knows that art is not my gift! Stick figures are about as elaborate as I get when it comes to drawing or painting. Sculpting is also something that is clearly not a gift for me. I look back at my past attempts at making something out of clay and I just get embarrassed! The image that is so clearly in my mind just doesn’t come through in the medium I’m working with.

And so making something for a member of my family that they will want to have and appreciate is a bit of a stretch for me. Now given all that, I will still give it my best effort. I will try my best to make something that my person will be able to enjoy or use. However, I know that it remains to be seen how effective my labor of love will be.

As I think about giving such a gift, I cannot help but think of the gift our Father gave us in Jesus. In this time of year we think of gifts and giving. God, our Father, gave us the absolute perfect gift in Christ.

Paul, in 2 Corinthians 8:9 writes, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” We get an even clearer picture of the riches Christ had in Philippians 2:6-8 where Paul writes, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death__ even death on a cross!”

When I think of how my homemade Christmas gift will be received, I worry a bit. What if he or she doesn’t like it? What if he or she thinks it was a nice try but not very good. Why am I concerned about that? Because I’ve invested myself in giving the gift. My gift reflects a part of me and I hope it will be received as such.

When God gave us His Son, He knew exactly what we needed and not only gave it to us in Jesus, but He gave of Himself in sending His Son. Jesus gave up Himself so that we could have life and life eternal. God wants us to fully appreciate His gift to us and we do that by not only remembering that Christmas is a time when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We give thanks to God for His Son by living every single day as an expression of gratitude for what God has done. And so we echo what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:15, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”

Pastor Jerry December 2006