Christmas Gifts

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Are you ready for Christmas? A question that I seem to come across quite often this month. And my usual response is ‘Getting there’.

There is a lot going on for most of us at this time. I feel a bit more organized as I got my hubby’s and son’s gifts sorted out. I personally do not enjoy shopping and add the crowds in the store at this time and I avoid the shops like the plague. Online shopping is a boon to people like me, but I had to physically go to the store yesterday for some of my son’s gifts. The only motivation is the joy on my son’s face when he sees what I got him. It ended up not being as bad as I thought, either people are more organized than me and are sorted with their shopping or most are resorting to online shopping.

As the gifts lie under the Christmas tree, and as we read through the chapter in Mathew that detail out the birth of Jesus during our advent readings, we get to read about the gifts of Frankincense, Gold and Myrrh brought by the wise men.

Mathew 2:11 “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”

Last Sunday, at church we had what is called a family service where the Sunday school kids get front and center and sing Christmas songs, share relevant verses and look adorable. And we did have an animated Christmas story play for the children. Again, along with Jesus’s birth, there were the three gifts by the wise men. My attention was drawn to the gifts. It is such a part of the story that most of us would be familiar with the gifts brought to Jesus by the wise men. But these gifts although mentioned every time the story is retold never overshadows the true message of the story, the birth of our Saviour. And I was reminded that although gifts are indeed such a big part of our celebration, may it never take precedence over the main message of Christmas. When we read the verse above, we see that the magi worshipped Jesus first and only then did they open their gifts and present them. For each of us, let our worship of Jesus be first and foremost before the gifts. 

God Bless.