Favorite Christmas posts countdown: 4

This week I'm sharing some of my favorite Christmas posts from over the years.  This one was first published in December of 2008.

What do you give the Guy who has everything?

A few times during past weeks, one of the announcers on the radio station I listen to the most has posed this scenario: imagine that you go to a birthday party, and everyone there receives gifts, except the birthday boy. The implication is that this is exactly what we've done with Christmas, which is, after all, a celebration of Christ's birth. I remember thinking about that and mentioning it in one of our past Christmas newsletters, but the first thing I thought when I heard about this birthday party was, "but what do you give the Guy who has everything?" (I think that comes from the Christmas musical I was in when I was 7 or 8: there was a song that went, "what can we give to the King? Give to the One who has everything?") I think we've probably all been in that situation, right?

The question remains, what can I, a lowly, imperfect, unworthy human, give to the One who gave me everything I have? What could I possibly have, that God, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, could want? This Christmas, we, along with my husband's family, bought gifts for a family we don't know, who are unable to buy their own Christmas presents. We did this because we are Christ-followers, but is this really a gift for Jesus? We tend to give more money to charities around Christmas time as well. We do this because we are Christ-followers, but is that really a gift for Jesus? I suppose, based on Jesus' words in Matthew 25:40: "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me," we can say these gifts are for Jesus, but I think what Jesus really wants for His birthday is...us. Our very lives. Our hearts, minds, and souls. Everything we have and everything we are. As Margie Palatini wrote in Mooseltoe,it's "so simple. So easy. So...perfectly perfect." Right?

Unfortunately, Moose's Christmas preparations didn't turn out to be so simple, so easy, or so perfectly perfect, and that happens with our gift to our Savior as well. We have the perfect gift to give to our King, and it is so simple, but so often we mess it up anyway. It is so much easier to give Jesus the parts of our lives we feel good about, or feel comfortable giving up control over, and to hoard to ourselves the darker places, or the things that bring us earthly security. We pick and choose the parts of our gift for Jesus, rather than surrendering all.

So, my friends, what gift will you bring to Jesus this Christmas? What are yougonna give the Guy who has everything?