The Perfect Gift
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17
There are some traditional things that summer brings.
- The ability to eat at our favorite seasonal restaurants.
- A change in traffic patterns.
- Summer guests
- And the usual trek to the gift shops.
A couple months ago, I was driving down my driveway to go somewhere when all of a sudden two of my friends jumped out of the bushes at the end of my driveway to surprise me. They flew in from Chicago without telling me as a special surprise for a two day visit. It was wonderful.
And one of the things they wanted to do, is to go gift shopping. We have something that we do whenever they come to the cape, all three of us buy the same exact trinket for our homes that remind us of our friendship.
During our shopping trip, I started thinking about gifts.
July 22, 2012
Matthew 7:7–11, The Perfect Gift
Mary Scheer, Brewster Baptist Church
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Now, anyone who knows me for 5 min. knows how much I love presents. I blame my parents. As you’ve heard me say in the past, they were the kind of people who would celebrate Wednesday just because it was Wednesday.
They had people over all the time. They gave gifts to their friends and family just for fun. My mom made every holiday extraordinarily special.
And let me tell you, gift giving was serious business in our house. Now my parents always checked out the gifts we were giving to others to be sure they were not only appropriate, but perfectly suited for the recipient.
So, when I was maybe 11 or 12 and still new to the family, I had bought what I thought was the perfect gift for my mom for Christmas. Noticing that she always wore bathrobes, I bought her a bathrobe.
When showing it to my dad, he asked me why I chose that gift. I said, “well, I always see her wearing bathrobes.” He pointed out that I hadn’t noticed enough about her bathrobes. For starters, she always wore a certain kind, I bought a completely different fabric. She had several bathrobes in her closest, but only wore one (which meant the others were probably gifts from other relatives who had no clue what kind she liked.)
He encouraged me to look again, to really think about something that would be uniquely special to her. He used to say, “If it’s the thought that counts, then spend some time thinking about it!” Gift giving is meant to be a blessing, to convey something important, to delight the receiver and that takes a little thought.
On an 8th grade trip to Washing D.C., while in a local gift shop I bought my dad who loved birds, a smoky white glass vase, with two beautiful birds etched into it. I thought “aha! The perfect gift” He was very kind in receiving the gift. But he also used the moment to ask me why I bought something from that shop. I said I wanted him to have something from Washington D.C. and at that, he turned the Vase over and pointed out where it read, Made in China! He said, don’t buy something just to buy it. If you wanted it to really represent Washington D.C. you would have to look for something locally made. That’s when I learned that gift giving can be tricky!
After being rescued from an orphanage and receiving the first toys that I could call my own, every gift seemed magical.
I can recall pretty much every Christmas growing up. I know where I sat around the tree and I can recall almost every gift I opened and what I was thinking and feeling with each one.
When I moved into with my new family, the other girls had pretty jewelry boxes. Oh how I wanted a pretty box to put things in. I never said anything to my new parents though. I never asked. But, that first Christmas, I opened the most beautiful pink jewelry box, with a tiny ballerina that turned in circles to music. I was mesmerized. What made it so perfect was that I had been dancing ballet for a few years and this represented something I loved, and it was a gift that made me feel like I belonged, like I was part of, same as…it made me feel like I was home.
Whether we are the giver or the receiver, gifts have real potential to bless our lives! Gift giving didn’t start with us, the Bible says that God is the father of gift giving, that every good and perfect gift comes from above. (Js. 1:17)