Tag: gifts

The Day After

As I write this, Christmas is three days away.
My shopping is done, save one more quick trip to the store.
Wrapping the gifts I am giving may wait.
For years, most of my wrapping of presents was done after I got home from our last Christmas Eve service. Usually beginning about 1:00 in the morning. It was my time to transition from Christmas Eve at the church to Christmas Day with my family.
So, I may wait until Christmas Eve to wrap the gifts I am giving to allow treasured memories space to live again.

But right now I am not thinking about Christmas.
And the gifts we will give.
Or the greetings we will exchange with family and friends.
Or Silent Night with candles lit.
I am thinking about the day after.
After the carols are sung and the dishes are done.
After the wrapping paper is set outside in the trash.
After the new clothes are tried on to see which ones fit and what needs to be returned.
What happens on THAT day.

Can we..
And how will we…
Still sing about and dream about and work towards Peace on Earth?
And what gift will we give on that day to those whom we love?
And how will we practice the compassion and generosity we felt before Christmas when we dropped off a gift for a child or food for the food pantry in the days after Christmas?
I wonder.

Christmas is wonderful.
I love it.
But, it is the day after that matters.

Advent 2016 – Day 4

I love Christmas.
I love the carols.
I love the candlelight.
I love setting up the creche in my office.
And having the children see it and talk with me about it.
I love thinking about what gifts to give.
And, don’t even mind the shopping (most of the time).
And, the meaning of the season stands at the center of my faith.
Maybe it is heresy to say
But Christmas means more to me than Easter.
Incarnation more than resurrection.

All that serves as introduction to this.
Yesterday afternoon I spent a few minutes looping ribbon through a note card and then through a hole in a cardboard star. Written on the note card is a gift suggestion for a child whose family does not have the resources I do to buy gifts for my family. I thought of those children and those families yesterday as I looped ribbon through holes and tied a knot. I thought of the excitement of the children which, I am sure, matches the excitement of my children when they were young. And I thought about the parents…the Moms and the Dads…who long for and work so hard for something more for their children. Each knot became a prayer.

I know Christmas is about more than gifts.
But it is about wonder and excitement.
And, about dreams and possibilities beyond the reality of the present moment.
Sometimes we catch a glimpse of that in church.
And, sometimes on the village street.
And, sometimes in the eyes of a child.
Or in the dreams of a parent.

I Had The Luxury of Staying Home

I had the luxury of staying home on Thanksgiving.
And, staying home again on Black Friday.
I did not have to stand in line or fight the crowds or fight someone else for that bargain that could only be had by standing in line or fighting the crowds of fighting someone else. We can debate whether stores could have or should have waited one more day to start their Black Friday sales. And, I know some people shopped on Thanksgiving or got up early on Friday just because they could. But, I also think some stood in line in the dark and cold because that was the only chance they had to buy that gift. Not that what they bought would be gone if they didn’t stand in line, but because the $10.00 difference in price made a difference. It made it possible for them to buy both the gift to give and the food they need.

So much of what I saw and read about the Black Friday crowds seemed like it had a touch of arrogance about it. It sounded like it was looking down on those who stood in those lines.
But I wonder.
I know some for whom that $10.00 matters.
Who stood in those lines because they didn’t want to have to decide between a gift to give and food to eat.

I had the luxury of staying home on Thanksgiving.
And, staying home again on Black Friday.

One gift less…

Earlier this week, a member of Bedford Presbyterian Church sent me this link to a You Tube video by the Advent Conspiracy – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU&feature=share.

The video hit home.
Because, even though supporting causes and programs that practice compassion in a complicated world has always been a part of our Christmas gift giving, I love thinking about and buying or making gifts for those whom I love. And, I love sitting in the front room of our home on Christmas morning and watching as gifts are given and received. But I think next year I will practice giving “one less gift” and instead set aside that money to buy food or provide shelter or build a home or something. And, I will encourage others to do the same.

All decisions about how we spend our money are important.
And, all contributions that meet the basic needs of others matter.
But equally as important is my own mindfulness;
My own paying attention;
To what I believe is the real meaning of the season.

Believe…in what?

This time of year it is often the advertisements that cause me to stop and say, “Really?” This morning it was a Macy’s ad in the New York Times. A full page ad featuring an attractive woman reaching towards an stack of wrapped boxes as tall as she was with a single word across the page. Believe. For those of us who do our best to hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, the ad presents us with a stark choice. Believe…but in what.

Macy’s, and other retailers, would have us believe that happiness, joy, love, fulfillment come in beautiful boxes beautifully wrapped bought at their stores. Those of us on the faith side of the equation would beg to differ. But, before I am accused of being Scrooge let me say that I love Christmas. I love picking our or making a gift to give to those whom I love. I even enjoy sitting down with my wife and my checkbook and thinking about year end contributions that we would like to make to those organizations that work tirelessly to provide for the most vulnerable. But, I chose to believe in something more.

We cannot buy what we most long for.
It does not come in a box tied up with a bow.
For those of us who stand in the Christian tradition we believe that joy, peace, happiness, fulfillment have something to do with that which we know and name as God. And something to do with the wisdom and teachings of Jesus who did his best to point us in the direction of the grand Dream of God where all have enough and all have a place and where Peace on Earth is more than a Christmas card greeting.

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Several things I believe: