#21 "It's a Gift" -- Don

‘Twas the day after Christmas and all through the home, we regarded our waistlines, swollen like gnomes.

Ugh. Christmas is over.  Now let’s get ready for New Year’s Eve and the subsequent three months of dieting and scary, snowy roads.  Before, however, we pour the remaining eggnog down the drain, gobble up the last bit of Chex Mix (before it goes bad, ha!) and haul the crumpled wrapping paper to the curb, let’s take a moment and appreciate what we received through this past holiday, our Christmas gifts.

I suppose there are dozens of ways we could categorize Christmas gifts (big to small, most expensive to least expensive, sentimental to functional), but for now I’m going to organize them into the three categories: what we get from businesses, what we get from family and friends, and what we get from God.

What We Get From Businesses

While most of us abhor the excessive and grotesque commercialization of Christmas, with the overly bright and glitzy displays and the endless paa rum pum pum pum blaring through the mall speakers, there are some aspects of the merchandizing of Christmas that I am actually grateful for.  I was in a store the other day, and the cashier said to the person in line before me, “Merry Christmas” and that customer growled at her as though she was either hopelessly naïve or socially awkward.  After the snarky shopper moved along, the cashier said to me, “I don’t care how others treat me, I’m going to be nice to people anyway.”  Her smile was genuine, her kindness was infectious, and she had already forgiven the grump in front of me for his rudeness.

And that, folks, is a real gift. 

Yes, yes, I know the lights are too bright, the music is too loud, and the parking lots are too crowded, but let’s remember that when people make it a special part of their jobs to be nice to others, it more than makes up for the cynical corporate marketing schemes that aim to squeeze out our last dimes.  While I’m sure this particular cashier is nice to people the other eleven months of the year, it’s a gift to be reminded that Christmas shopping is not just about going out to garner the stuff we will be trading with the people we know, it’s also about the cheerfulness and consideration we can exchange with absolute strangers.  Although at times we can all get cranky and sneering, we know we are better people when we are not.  It’s a gift to be reminded to be nice to one another (even if that reminder has a price tag hanging off of it).

What We Get From Family and Friends

The best gifts we get from our family and friends are not necessarily unwrapped on Christmas morning.  The best gift we get from the people we really know and care about in our lives is the certainty that (for reasons which may lie beyond our comprehension) we matter to them and they matter to us.

My daughter, Olivia, gave me a new board game for Christmas; as much as I appreciate the box full of tiny tokens, playing cards, and its impressive cardboard layout, the real gift is not the game so much as all the time we’ll eventually spend together playing it.  This Christmas among the spoils we offered each other, the family gave movies, music, and books.  For me, these presents are not the media itself, but the time we’ll spend together watching the films or talking about the books.

My wife, Ruth, was a bit disappointed, I think, that I started wearing the jacket she gave me before Christmas and that she didn’t get to wrap it up for me to open yesterday morning.  Her gift wasn’t really the jacket though.  It was the warmth it provided me last week when I couldn’t bear to go outside in my old coat. 

My daughter, Ellie, gave me a graphic novelization of The Wizard of Oz.  I love the book, but what I love even more is how this particular gift demonstrates how well Ellie knows me.  She knows what I like, and that’s the real gift: she knew I would like it.

So, for my friends and family who regularly drop by this blog and give Olivia and me a little bit of your time, thanks for taking a part of your life to be a part of our lives.  We appreciate this gift more than you’ll ever know.

What We Get From God

The best gifts, naturally, come from God.  I am completely grateful for the talents and abilities that I have.  Although I humbly admit I lack a lot of useful skills (I’m a terrible mechanic, a wretched carpenter, and nearly worthless plumber), I have been divinely gifted with a love for words and a keen appreciation for seeing the humor in most situations. 

I love music, and although I put many, many hours into learning to play a few instruments, I did not “learn” to be a songwriter, that was a gift from God.  I have no idea how many times I have been gifted while writing a song with a new melody from an inspired spiritual region that I have no right to claim ownership from.

Perhaps the best gift I get from God is the on-going mystery of it all.  As I’ve often said to my students, “a good question is better than a good answer, because a good question keeps us going.” 

Even though I may not understand a lot about God (nor much of what He or She is up to), I am grateful for the gift of simply being allowed to hang out here in this particular physical world to watch and see what I can make of it all.  I don’t think it’s just a linguistic coincidence that the word “present” means both “a gift” and “at this very moment.”

This present moment is the greatest gift we get from God; recognizing it’s endless mysteries of why we’re here and how we’re meant to be with each other is how we demonstrate our gratitude for this gift.  It’s the wonder that makes it wonderful.  Furthermore, whenever we are feeling blue or overwhelmed with our lives, it’s this awareness that holds the secret to finding our way back to happiness: “Who am I right now?” and “Why am I here?” 

It seems foolish to struggle with the petty complications of this life when we remember that we have been given the gift of this present moment. God has puts us on the cusp of the infinite to marvel at all we can behold while overlooking its rim.

Thank you, God, for everything.  I promise not to try and return it.