The Perfect Christmas Gift

The Perfect Christmas Gift

Luke 2:10-17

Let me ask you a question... Is there any such thing as, "The perfect Christmas gift?"

Have you ever thought for months, planned for weeks, gotten everything together, for what you knew would be the perfect gift for so-and-so’) You were so excited that you could hardly wait for them to get it. But maybe you didn’t turn out just perfect!!!

Like: You plan to have a photograph of all of the grand kids, in their most precious Christmas clothes... it will be the perfect gift for Grandma. But when you go to have the photograph made little Johnny will not sit still... Andy has pulled the bow out of his sister’s hair... the one you paid $16 to have the beautician weave into her hair... you promise Johnny things you have no intention of giving him if he will just sit still for one minute, you get the bow back in Betty’s hair but you have to settle for a pony tail., and all is going well when, just before the photographer’s flash goes off the baby throws up!!!!

Doesn’t it sometimes seem like Christmas is as much work, and pain, as a two pound chicken laying a three pound egg?

Maybe it is just me! Maybe I am the only one who ever thought... Boy, that ring looked bigger in the box or you look at the chair where your wife’s gifts are and you think "It sure doesn’t look like very much stuff now, but it sure seemed like a whole lot when I was paying for it." Maybe I’m the only one who ever walked through every store in the mall, four times, and still had no clue as to what to buy. Maybe I am the only one here who has been promising himself for 10 years "Next year I will not wait til December to start shopping."

How do you know the perfect gift when you see it? What requirements does it have to meet? Does it just have to meet a certain karat weight? Does it just have to come from a certain store or have a certain designer’s name on it? And who decides it is the perfect gift; the giver or the receiver?

This morning, I want to talk to you about The Perfect Christmas Gift.

You’re sitting there thinking "You just told us that you have no idea what a perfect gift is... and now you are going to preach about what one is?

That seems like listening to Mickey Rooney pontificate about the dangers of being tall or Roseanne speaking on morality Michael Jordan giving a seminar on How To Survive on A Limited Income, Bill Clinton on Honesty... or Frank Gifford on Marital Fidelity.

Now, before you get testy and negative I want you to know I am not speaking from personal experience of from my own wisdom.

I have expert advise in the choosing of the Perfect Gift

Who is my expert source???? God.

You may be thinking; I know the bible does not tell how to choose the perfect gift.

Oh, contraire!!!! In fact, the scripture gives us a great guideline all we have to do is to learn from the Master.

Seriously, there are four principles we can learn from Examining God’s Perfect gift Jesus.

If you want to give the perfect gift; it should be...

1. A PERSONAL GIFT

"For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son... "John 3:16

Now, you can wait until the last moment before you get your wife a gift. But when she opens that team logo, refillable coffee mug... she’s going to know that you went to 7-11 at 10:30 pm on Christmas Eve before you got it. And you knew that you could not fool her with that card... when you scratched out Happy Birthday and wrote in Merry Christmas.

If a gift is going to be appreciated... if it is really going to be a bell ringer… it takes some thought. It needs to take into consideration the person, their likes, their dislikes, their personality, their needs, their interests.

I could not just run to my closet and pullout a new box of golf balls to give as a gift for... say, Virginia Settle. She wouldn’t use them.

It reminds me of The Beverly Hillbillies Mr. Drysdale invited Jed to go golfing and had a new set of clubs delivered to Jed’s mansion. Jethro asked Jed what they were for and Jed said that Mr. Drysdale wanted him to go hunt golfs. Jethro asked what golfs were and Jed said, "Don’t rightly know. But they must be terrible mean varmints., if you have to beat them to death with these clubs. Granny came up and said "Tough, tough" Why you ain’t got any idea. I’ve been boiling these golf eggs for two days and I still can’t crack ’em."