relational gifts & the reason for the season

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it has been a wonderful CHRISTmas day. i spent the morning and early afternoon with the fam and then we were joined by a few threads for whatever meal comes between lunch and supper (lupper?) and a documentary (“the king of kong” which is a great documentary.

i hear some many people say “remember the reason for the season” and for pam and i part of remembering the birth of our REDEEMER is remembering that his parents had no place for them. therefore, we love having people over at our home who have no place to go on CHRISTmas. of course, it also makes for a great time. for example, one of the guys who came over tonight brought his boxer. boxers are very curious and full of energy. basset hounds on the other hands are not very energetic and like to be left alone. if made for some interesting dogs moments – for example the box definitely ran over the bassets several times.

the other thing i loved was the relational gifts that we gave each other. each one of us got a gift from one of the other members of the family that required more effort and time than cash. the beauty of the gifts was that they reflected knowledge of and concerning for the receiver.  for example, the photo above is pam’s gift to me. it is a football autographed by bart starr. she went through allot and received helped from an old friend (thanks bernard) to get this ball for me.

i’m not sure that many of the gifts we give each other actually honor CHRIST very much BUT i am convinced that relational gifts are much more likely to honor CHRIST. one of the guys with us today made and gave away nine handmade blankets for his friends and family. he showed me a photo from his cell phone of all the blankets underneath his “charlie brown CHRISTmas tree.” he told me about how much fun giving these gifts had been for him.

AS A SIDE NOTE – i don’t really think we do a very good job of remembering the “reason for the season” by just going to CHRISTmas services, singing songs, and focusing on family time. family time is great. there is no doubt about it. yet i wonder if we celebrate the season better by “inviting the wanderer into our home.” i wonder what CHRISTmas would be like if all the believers in JESUS focused on bringing others into their homes.