What is a gift? Have you ever gotten a "bad" gift? Recently, Jimmy Kimmel asked parents to pull a prank on their kids where they gave their kids bad gifts and taped their responses. Of course, their reactions ranged from sad, to cute, to appalling. In this season of gift giving and receiving, it provides food for thought.
I love giving gifts. I always have. I remember as a young girl, after all the Christmas gifts had been opened, going and finding household items, wrapping them, and giving them to my family. I didn't want the unwrapping, the gift-giving to be over. Sure, I loved receiving gifts, but the whole giving/receiving thing was wonderful to me. That is why I hate, H-A-T-E, that gift cards seem to have replaced so much of personal gift-giving. To me, gift cards are the same thing as giving someone cash and telling them to get their own gift. Giving shouldn't be about the money, the cost of the gift, it should be about taking the time to give someone something you think they might like.
The reason I think we love gift cards so much is because we don't know what people might like--and we don't want to take the time to find out. We are not close to people. We don't know what they have, what they want, what is important to them, what makes them laugh...or cry. So we give them money. We get money. Money...to get what we want. But what do we really want?
Some of my most treasured gifts are things I never would have asked for. One of the first things that comes to mind is a beautiful green, glass platter with a spiral design that we got as a wedding gift from a co-worker/friend/mentor of mine. I love that platter. It wasn't on our registry. I never would have registered for it in a million years. Twenty-one years after our wedding day I use that platter and every time I think of my old friend, Gay, who gave it to us. And I love it.
I have wonderful bowls from friends and family that I think of every time I make pancakes or salad. I have a great big pink diamond bottle stopper from my friend, Leslie. I think of my friend Kath when I see the solar lights in my back yard. I didn't ask for any of these things...didn't even know I wanted them...but every time I use them I smile and they bless me with thoughts of people I hold dear. I wouldn't trade them for anything.
Tonight, I was showing my husband something on the Internet and the tears flowed, as usual. You see, tears come very, very easily to me. You might say that God gave me the "gift" of tears. I've always had them, just ask my mom. To me (and her), they have often been a curse. I can't speak of anything meaningful to me without the tears flowing, but slowly, over time, I am coming to see them as a gift. Not everyone can cry. My tears are liquid love, as if my heart is overflowing. They show people I care. They are a release. My tears express emotion for those around me who can't. I'm not sure of all the ways they are a gift, but I am coming to realize that, somehow, they are.
If God had been part of Jimmy Kimmel's prank and I'd opened this "gift" of tears, I might well have reacted the way those kids did: irritated, angry, unappreciative and even downright disrespectful. I might have said, "God, what kind of gift is this? One that makes my nose run, that makes me look silly and feel self-conscious? Is this some kind of joke?" But God, like my friends, knows what I need even when I don't know I need it. He doesn't give me a gift card, to get the gifts that I think I want. No...he gives me what he wants for me. So when you give and get gifts this season, even if it's something you didn't want or don't think you need...take another look. Maybe, just maybe, it's the best gift you ever got...that you didn't even know you needed.
