What Unusual Gift Will You Give This Year?
We’ve survived another Christmas shopping season with its deluge of Christmas ads. I’m used to ads appearing in my email inbox and Facebook feed, but since early November, I’ve experienced the digital equivalent of crazed Black Friday shoppers at Wal-Mart. Only this time, it’s the products coming at me screaming, “BUY ME! BUY ME!”
Apparently, it works. If what we spent in 2023 is any indication, Americans will spend $900 on Christmas gifts this year. Based on what my family is spending, there is someone out there spending a whole lot more than $900.
Sorry if I’m not contributing to the American economy like I should, but that doesn’t keep the retailers and marketers from trying to get my business. “Look no further. This right here is the only gift you’ll need to give this year.”
I’m amazed at what people will buy at Christmas. Sure, they’ve got to get Cousin Eddie something, but that?
Pickle Candy Canes. What puts you in a festive holiday spirt: a candy cane or a pickle? If you can’t decide, you can now have both!
Long-Distance Touch Lamps. The lamps are connected via an app, so each one lights up when someone taps it. Next time you’re missing each other, just touch the lamp and it’ll literally brighten up the other person’s day! When they’ve seen it light up, they can touch the lamp as well, and it’ll change colors to let you know that they’re feeling the same way. Or if you’re irritated with them, you could make their lamp light up at 3:00 a.m. Or you just pick up the phone and call them. Y’know, have a conversation.
Umbrella Hat. Those gifts are silly; Let’s go with something practical. Don’t you hate it when your hands are full of grocery bags and it’s raining? Problem solved with this stylish umbrella hat!
I’m amused by the trailer load of car commercials on TV. Who buys a car as a Christmas gift—and how do you get it under the tree? There’s no way I’d buy a car for my wife without her knowledge and input. I’m sure I’d get the wrong color.
I suppose it wouldn’t be Christmas, though, without an unusual gift or two.
When Jesus was an infant, men showed up at the home of Mary and Joseph with highly unusual gifts for a baby. What kid needs gold, frankincense, or myrrh? Yet what seem like unusual gifts to us were highly significant for the Son of God resting in His mother’s arms.
- A gift for His royalty. Gold is the finest and most precious metal, and it showed great value from the giver to the recipient.
- A gift for His Deity. Frankincense is a glittering, odorous gum obtained by making incisions in the bark of several trees. It was essentially an aromatic used in sacrificial offerings.
- A gift for His humanity. Myrrh was a much-valued spice and perfume, used in embalming and perfuming ointments.
Let me encourage you to also give an unusual gift to Jesus this year: your life. Trust me: that’s exactly what He wants. The gift of your life is certainly not out of place to Jesus, but others may see your gift as odd—even weird. Your gift to Jesus may be weird to them because they’re thinking
- It’s OK to like Jesus, but don’t go overboard.
- Don’t get all religious and waste your life.
- Don’t throw away your potential in this world.
Those who’ve never fully committed their lives to Christ don’t get it. It’s when we “gift” our life to Jesus that we get it back.
“Truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:24-25).
Yet He not only gives us life, He gives us a rich, full life.
“I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance” (John 10:10).
And that’s far better than anything you’ll find under your Christmas tree. Even from Cousin Eddie.
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This post supports the study “Looking Forward in Worship ” in Bible Studies for Life and YOU.
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