And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh. Matthew 2:11.
It was almost midnight Christmas Eve when the dad came home from an extra long day at work. While days of handmade gifts were a distant memory and the demands for electronics were yet to come, he still had a store-bought Christmas gift to assemble...outside in the cold. Santa’s big gift for the preschoolers at this house was a swing set, complete with countless metal parts, nuts, bolts, and a difficult to follow instruction booklet.
Mom alternated keeping watch over the fledglings and holding the flashlight fixed on each tiny place of connection. By four o’clock, the couple fell into bed.
At four thirty, they heard a tiny voice, “Is it time to get up? Has Santa come yet?”
Mom scurried to the children’s room to soothe the stirring one back to sleep. “Santa hasn’t come yet. We can’t get up until the sun rises,” she comforted. After the child drifted back to sleep again, she made sure the curtains were closed tightly over the window. Even with her directive, she knew morning would come too soon.
And it did. The pajama-clad children rushed first to the tree and then followed their parents’ directions to go to the backyard. The two-year-old ran for the first swing. “Push me! Push me!” he shouted.
The four-year-old walked to the second swing and looked at the seat. “S - E- A - R- S,” she spelled out. “I see that Santa shops at Sears, too.” She sat down and began to swing. And the two swung and slid and climbed on the apparatus all morning long until it was time to dress and join the extended family for dinner. This Santa gift, despite the long hours required to assemble it, was a big hit not only that morning, but for many days and months and years to come.
From filling stockings to stacking the wrapped packages under the tree, we’re constantly putting Christmas up during the month of December.
And gift giving? It’s a major part of Christmas observance in the United States. This year, economists estimate that collectively, we’ll spend more than six billion dollars on gifts. Profits from Christmas sales often determine the health of many businesses. As the cost of living rises annually, families spend more each year on the newest, latest, most in demand items. We want our children to be happy, to feel our love, to have their heart's desire.
And yet, each of us knows in our heart that no matter how many pennies we pinch in order to treat our children, no matter how tall the stack of presents may rise, some of our very young will question, ”Is this all?” And if our Christmas observance is only about the gifts, then most of us, too, will sense that something very big, very important, is missing.
We trace this tradition of gift giving to the first Christmas when the Magi, the Wise Men, followed a star to bring gifts from afar to the newborn Child that prophesy had declared King. According to the Biblical Archeology Society, the valuable gifts from the magi were standard gifts to honor a king of the ancient world: gold, a precious metal; frankincense, an expensive perfume; myrrh, an anointing oil. In archaic documents, scholars have discovered other rulers receiving these same three gifts.
However, many Biblical scholars think these particular gifts were more than traditional ones; they were chosen for their spiritual symbolism about Jesus - gold representing his kingship; frankincense, a symbol of his priestly role; myrrh, an early embalming substance prophesying his death.
And what happened to these gifts? Only Matthew reports the visit by the Magi, but none of the gospels add any account about how the gifts were used. However, speculations abound. The gifts were sold to financed the family’s flight to Egypt; Mary and Joseph used the money to fund the education of Jesus. Jesus used the money to fund his own ministry.
But a larger question still looms. What do we do with the abundance of blessings we receive each day? After we count them, one by one, do we, with grateful hearts, accept these gifts graciously and give thanks to God? Do we show appreciation to those who touch our lives in positive ways? Do we share? Do we teach our children to share?
Putting up Christmas is far more than assembling toys or decorating the house. It’s even more than sending greetings and attending religious services. The way we attend to the blessings bestowed upon us stands in testimony to our belief about Christmas itself.
May the many blessings of this holy season make happy every day of your new year.
2014
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