getting

It’s a few days from Christmas, and I’m sitting in front of my computer trying to write profound words about giving and living for others. I watched my very favorite story yesterday, Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and I was tempted to quote Marley about the chains we forge in life and how man is meant to walk the earth and help his fellow man.

But the truth is, I overheard my husband talking to my dad on the phone last night. When he
hung up I said, “What did dad want?” Matt said, “I can’t say.”

And all of a sudden my inner 6-year-old was showing, as I jumped up and down in the kitchen. “Why can’t you say? Why can’t you say? Is it something for me?” He would only smile. And I hugged him and said, “I love getting presents.”

I love getting presents more than most young children do. I try to put on an outer maturity of
selflessness, but when no one is looking I’m under the tree to see how many presents have my name on them.

We should focus on getting at Christmas. For God so loved the world that we get Jesus. We get joy. We get love. We get peace. We get a spirit of self control. We get grace. We get mercy. We get forgiveness. We get help. We get company.

And like gradeschool children who compare gifts after the holidays, maybe all the good we do our fellowman during the year is nothing more than bragging it up.

“Let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows Me.” Jeremiah 9:24.