Christmas…the season of gift giving. Some people are great gift-givers. A dear friend told me last Sunday, “I start my Christmas shopping right after Christmas.” I will see something and think, “that’s something so & so would like.” Wow! This blew me away. I remember being in a panic on Christmas Eve. I said to my young daughters, “Girls, come on. We’ve got to go to the store. I need you to tell me what your mother wants for Christmas.” It was not that I had not thought about Mary, but I could not identify what she “needed.”

Growing up in the late 1950’s & 60’s was an era of “deferred gratification”. It was a cash & carry economy. The Sears & Roebuck catalog was our family “wish book.” If you were careful & sneaky, the catalog would fall open to the page that had been used the most. Christmas shopping was a combination of needs & wants.

I was in grade school when my mother gave what I thought a great clue to something she needed. It met my criteria, affordability & need. I remember it was extremely hard to wrap and disguise the trash can under the tree.

I seem to have carried this gift giving strategy over into my adult life. There was the special set of Tupperware I gave Mary one year, but the one I really thought would be the “Out-of-the-Park” gift did not go well! It was early in our marriage. We had young children at the time. And with young children come daily spills. This gift would make life so much easier. For several days, the BIG wrapped box sat underneath the tree. Mary kept asking for hints. She had no idea. Yes, what woman would not like a Shop-Vac that picks up liquids, glass, and so much more! This thing did it all. Well, not quite!

One of God’s unique attributes is, He is the Perfect Gift-Giver. To know the “Gift-Giver” is to know He gave the most treasured part of His heart, His Son. God unwraps the Perfect Present in John 3:16-17, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him (Jesus) will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.”

I went through much of my life “trying” to fulfill my needs & wants on my own. My theme song was, “I did it my way.” That is until my life fell apart. It was then that my wants & needs became real. It was then that I accepted His Present of eternal life.

Our Father is a 24-7, 365 Gift-Giver. Jesus has told His followers, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20. Think about it. Wherever you are…No-Matter-What, The Creator of everything…Almighty God is with those who follow the “WAY.” Now that is the Gift that keeps on giving.