The Best Gift Series

Christmas Eve Service

“The Best Gift”

Romans 6:23

Dec. 24, 2005

Rev. Wm. A. Huegel

Wallingford FBC

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God…” John 1:12

Merry Christmas!

Some of you don’t know what you’re getting yet. And some of you had a very hard time trying to figure out what to give to somebody you love. Every Christmas, I always hope that my wife doesn’t take my gift giving too seriously. I never know what to get her. When it comes to clothes I have bad taste. And I have no clue what size she wears. She buys a lot of my clothes. I buy very few for her. Recently I bought her a skirt. I shouldn’t have. It was way too large. Husbands, let me let you in on a secret. Buy something that’s too small instead of too large. It will go better for you.

Some of you didn’t know what to buy so you are giving gift certificates. That safe! Others are just giving money. That’s always good. The best bargains are always after Christmas, actually. In fact, I like to shop for winter related stuff near the end of January.

A guy by the name of Herb Forst in Cross River, NY, offered some suggestions to the Reader’s Digest, p. 69 that they thought was so good they printed it. It’s entitled:

“What not to Buy Your Wife”

Although the only person a man usually shops for is his wife, the whole experience is a stressful one. Many a man has felt extreme frigid temperatures for a long period based on a poor present decision. As a veteran of these wars, I’m still not sure what to buy my wife, but I’ll pass on what not to buy her:

1. Don’t buy anything that plugs in. (Like a new vacuum cleaner). Anything that requires electricity is seen as utilitarian.

2. Don’t buy clothing that involves sizes. The chances are one in seven thousand that you will get her size right, and your wife will be offended the other 6999 times. "Do I look like a size 16?" she’ll say. Too small a size doesn’t cut it either: "I haven’t worn a size 8 in 20 years!"

3. Avoid all things useful. The new silver polish advertised to save hundreds of hours is not going to win you any brownie points.

4. Don’t buy anything that involves weight loss or self-improvement. She’ll perceive a six-month membership to Weight Watchers as a suggestion that’s she’s overweight.

Some of you are still shopping. Well, you’ve got a little time, because the family member you are buying for lives a couple of hours away and you’ll be doing the gift-giving thing later on in the week.

So, I’m going to give you some suggestions that I got from the Thanksgiving week edition of TIME magazine. They did a thing on “The Most Amazing Inventions of 2005”. I think they would be great gifts. The tire maker, Michelin has just come out with a wheel/tire combo called a “Tweel” (tire/wheel – got it?). It’s a band of hard rubber mounted on plyurethane spokes that absorb bounces and vibrations. It’s solid rubber with no air. So, you’ll never get a flat. But don’t rush right out to your nearest tire store to get it for your wives, gentlemen. It’s still too noisy for the highway. They need another 15 years or so to improve that aspect of it.

But wives, here’s something you can get for your husband – well, if not this year, maybe next year. It’s a motorcycle. It only goes about 50 miles an hour, but it get’s great mileage. In fact it doesn’t use gas at all. It uses a hydrogen fuel cell. The whole bike is aluminum and only weighs about 200 lbs. A $4.00 canister of hydrogen can take you nearly a 100 miles. You’re local Mobil station doesn’t carry the hydrogen cell, though. You better stock up and carry an extra with you. That will cost you a mere $10,000.

How about a pet? If you have a favorite dog that you just love – say an Afghan or something and he’s getting very old. Well, soon you’ll be able to get one just like him. Not sort of like him – exactly like him. You can get him cloned. Well, at least in South Korea, you can. You’ve heard about cloned sheep, mice and pigs. But cloning a dog has been more challenging. Well, they’ve succeeded. You can take a single cell from your dog’s ear, take it to your favorite Seoul, Korea laboratory, and they can make you a new one from that single cell. Amazing. If you want your kid cloned, I suppose that’s coming too, but I wouldn’t recommend it for this Christmas or even next.