Gifts

What presents did you buy this year? Did you get the Zuzu for your kids? Did you buy a new flat digital window to the world, or a gaming system to complement it? Clothes, perfume, the dreaded tie? What gifts did you spend a massive amount of time these past few months tracking down? Spending time to find it on sale, to find the right gift, time to wrap and mail them? All for usually no more than about an hours’ worth of unwrapping the gifts under the tree the average American mother will spend 28.8 hours doing all this in the final 2 weeks. Over one full day for one hour.

That is some dedication to the cause! But what cause, the cause of getting and giving gifts, the cause that brings real joy to the world? I think there is more to this season than we unwrap. I believe that each Christmas holds a greater treasure.

As a child I remember the day I found a 5 dollar bill on the ground. I remember the place, the weather that day, the way I felt – everything about that moment. Why? Just because I found money, well yes – but more over what I found was joy. A small example of what happens when joy over takes you is when you find something you thought you lost or expected never to have.

(Matthew 13:44) “"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

We seem to think that if we take Christ out of Christmas that everyone will find joy, but the opposite is true and in the end no one finds the greater treasure. The son of God is the greatest treasure you can unwrap in your life. What dedication do you have to the one that is dedicated to you?