Looking for the perfect Christmas gift? Me too. I like to buy Christmas gifts. There’s actually something prayerful about taking the time to find a gift that expresses something about the goodness, beauty or virtue of the person for whom I’m getting the gift.
I like to buy clothes for my wife that evoke some aspect of her fabulous inner loveliness; books for my daughters that resonate with their vast and deep spirits; complex things for my son that are in tune with his easygoing love of technological precision. I find that in the thinking about people, I actually find myself praying for them as I wander through the mall – thanking God for the wonder of their being; asking God to shower his blessings upon them as I ponder their goodness and unique gifts.
The perfect gift, no matter what it is, says “I know you, I care about you and I love you.” It occurs to me as I look for those perfect gifts, that any gift-giving I might be doing has its origin in the Giver of All Gifts, who gave us the Perfect Gift of His Son.
As I shop, I find myself thinking of our friends in Haiti. I’m struck by the contrast between the abundance surrounding me and the harshness of their struggle to live. It saddens me a bit, but I also rejoice to think that God has gifted us with the privilege of conveying his gifts of food, opportunity and hope to them.
It occurs to me that the gifts we’d really like to give them can only be given by God. Nonetheless, we can pray for their safety, health and well-being; we can pray that they may have a future full of peace and opportunity. Wouldn’t that be the perfect Christmas gift?
Closer to home, I wonder about the people I meet in the hospital and what the perfect Christmas gift would look like for them. In my mind’s eye I can easily imagine what these gifts might be, but I also recognize that these too can only be given by God. Although I know that, I believe that God reads hearts and in his infinite compassion will take my little prayer and shape it into the perfect gift these folks and their families really need.
I’d like to give the gift of one more day of life for the agitated man in the hospice wing who is afraid to die - that he may find peace. I’d like to give back to her family the mother of four who slammed into a tree not all that long ago and remains in a coma. Wouldn’t a second chance for that seventeen-year-old who chose to drink and drive be the perfect present? How about another opportunity for the 72-year-old who did exactly the same thing and killed his wife in the process - wouldn't he welcome a surprise like that?
These gifts are beyond you and me. All we can give to their families and to them is the gift of praying for their peace and healing; that they may have a vivid sense that the love of God envelops us all, no matter what. In doing that, we become the perfect gifts through whom God gives the Perfect Gift of Himself to his lovely creatures who paradoxically both rejoice and suffer here on earth.
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