The Perfect Christmas Gift
I don’t know about you but I find it almost impossible to buy presents for people, particularly at Christmas. I seem to wander around the shops for hours getting more and more frustrated - then I finish up buying something I saw in the first shop I was in three or four hours before! Or alternatively it gets to half an hour before closing so I grab the first thing that comes to hand.
Now if that gives you the impression that I find it difficult to make decisions or I’m always changing my mind, then you are quite wrong – it’s just that I always want to get the right gift. I want to see those eyes light up when the person tears off the wrapping paper and screams, “that’s just what I’ve always wanted!” The problem is how do you know just what they’ve always wanted?
It used to be relatively easy when it came to the kids – a doll, a train set, a scooter, a bike. That was all fairly straightforward. But today it’s i-pods and Play Station games. And just when you think you’ve sussed out what’s the latest and greatest computer game then it’s all changed. And as for music CD’s, I’ve never worked out whether the Pre-Fab Sprouts became the Black-eyed Peas while I wasn’t looking! And of course the older the person for whom you’re buying the gift, then the harder the choice. It’s an age old cliché but what do you buy someone who appears to have everything?
It’s ironic that Christmas, which we all see as a time of relaxation and fun with the family, can become as stressful as the hardest day at the office as we scour the shops for that perfect gift.
So why do we buy presents at Christmas? Why do we put ourselves through that angst? To put it another way – what’s the reason for the season?
You’ve listened to me complain because I have to go through the heartache of trying to find a couple of perfect presents for family and friends. Yet isn’t it true that we are here today celebrating precisely because our Heavenly Father, some 2 thousand years ago, delivered the perfect gift, not just for a few family and friends, but for everyone. That perfect gift was a Saviour, His Son, Jesus Christ.
And the wonderful thing about Jesus and his saving grace is that he is not difficult to find, he never changes his name and he never goes out of fashion. As we are told in the letter to the Hebrews, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”
But thinking about Christmas and shopping for the right presents started me thinking – just what is it that makes a present perfect? What are the unseen elements that add sparkle and magic to any gift, that make the eyes light up and the smile grow from ear to ear? Because it is, I believe in looking at these elements that we will uncover the real reason for the season. The truth behind Christmas.
The first vital ingredient, I believe, for any perfect present is that it must be chosen with love. After all if you don’t care for the person to whom you are giving the present you won’t put too much thought into finding the right one, will you?
I remember when I was working, Christmas meant a flood of bottles, usually wine or whisky. Now don’t think for one moment that I wasn’t grateful – I most certainly was.
But most of them were simply filled with the fruits of the vine and not given as the fruits of love.
I suppose that’s one of the dangers of Christmas – it is often a time to fulfill obligations rather than present tokens of real love.
The bible has a very special word for the expression of real love. It is the Greek word ‘agape.’ The early Christians writers adopted this word to describe the overwhelming depth of God‘s love towards us. It’s perhaps best illustrated in the very well-known verse, John 3: 16. “God so loved the world that He gave (God gave out of real love, not out of any sense of obligation. And what did He give?) He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” So God’s perfect gift to every one of us today is given out of His very real love, His agape love, for us. And that gift is His only Son, Jesus, who as Paul tells us in the letter to the Philippians, though he was equal with God, humbled himself to become one of us and to live among us and, most wonderfully to die in our place for the things we do wrong.
And that thought brings me to the second of the ingredients that, I believe, contribute to making a present perfect. To qualify for perfection, a present must have a purpose and lasting value. The perfect gift is never one that is put away in a cupboard somewhere and never seen or used again.
Talking of lasting value reminds me of the husband who went shopping to find the perfect Christmas gift for his wife. He decided on a bottle of perfume and asked the assistant to help him. She showed him the first bottle but when he saw the thousand rand price tag he asked to see something a little less pricey. She then brought out a very nice bottle for R500 which he also said was too much. Next was a bottle for R250 with the same reaction from the husband. He finally asked, ”can you show me something cheap?” Without blinking an eye the assistant picked up a mirror and handed it to him!
God’s perfect gift to us at Christmas did not come cheaply. Jesus didn’t come to Earth just for the dubious opportunity to live as one of us. He came with a purpose - firstly to show us clearly what God is like. You will recall that Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” And then he came to die for us. By his death Jesus took upon himself the punishment that should rightfully have been ours for the things we do wrong each and every day. In dying he provided us the opportunity to restore our relationship with God.
God’s perfect present to each one of us this Christmas was chosen with love and has a purpose and a value that we can enjoy every day for the rest of our lives.
And that provides me with a hint for the third of my suggested keys to the perfect gift. It brings joy. You’ll remember I said I love to see the eyes light up and the smile spread as the gift I’ve given is opened. Those joyful reactions imply that I have made the right choice.
But I believe that the joy that is associated with God’s perfect gift to us goes way beyond smiles of gladness, because those depend so much on circumstances. And circumstances change.
When the Bible speaks of joy, and it does so often throughout the Old and the New Testament, it sees joy as something that is independent of circumstances. God’s joy comes from the knowledge of what Jesus has done for us; what the Holy Spirit continues to do in our lives; and the security of knowing that we are and always will be a child of God. No matter what might happen to us or around us those things can never change.
You’ll remember when I was describing my fruitless attempts at Christmas shopping I said that perhaps my biggest motivation were the wrods, “that’s just what I wanted.” I believe that God is looking down on us here this morning expectantly, waiting to hear those very same words - the very same response to His perfect present. And that leads me to the last and most practical feature of the perfect gift and that is - it must be unwrapped.
I remember some of my early Christmases in St Francis when my boys were much younger. I thought on occasions we’d lose one of them under the mountain of torn and discarded wrapping paper and leave him behind when we went back to J’burg! They were never in doubt as to what to do with the perfect present that lay beneath the folds of paper.
But are we sometimes in doubt as to what to do with God’s perfect gift? It’s easy, particularly as we enjoy the festivities of Christmas, to leave Jesus in the wrapper. We know he’s the Son of God, we know he came to Earth and was born as one of us – after all that’s why we are here this morning. But that’s not enough if we want to experience the deep and real joy of God’s perfect present.
Christmas is for all of us a wonderful time of giving and receiving. But imagine how you would feel if no-one opened any of the presents you had spent so much time shopping for. You’d be pretty devastated. Well I suspect that’s how God feels when He looks down at us. He has given us the perfect present - His Son - yet have we left him in the wrapper – are we merely going through the motions of Christianity?
Ask yourself this Christmas whether you’ve truly accepted from God the perfect present of salvation and eternal life. Have you removed the wrapper to a deep and meaningful relationship with the risen Lord Jesus?
God chose His gift with love; He ensured it had purpose and lasting value. He knows it will bring us everlasting joy.
All that remains is for you this Christmas is to take Jesus out of the wrapping and invite him into your life. Amen.
Shall we pray.
