What Gift?

When you go to the malls today you will see people busy choosing, buying and wrapping gifts for their friends and families. Many of them complain about the high prices of gifts or the difficulty of finding a suitable present for their loved ones. Magazines and internet sites have found enticing ways to introduce products that hopefully would make people buy. And discount shops seem to provide the best option.

You can go inside a supermarket and forage for Christmas items for hours and still come home unsatisfied with what you buy. This shows that we really exert efforts to make people we love like the things that we give them. Will Bob like this sweater I bought for him? Will Mary appreciate this pair of gloves I saw at the market? Will Dad find use for this set of repair tools?

It's okay to spend money to make people we love happy especially this Christmas season, the season of giving and receiving. Even the Wise Men were dumbfounded as to what gift was appropriate to the Child-God. However, we sometimes forget that it's not the gift, no matter how big or beautifully wrapped, that makes Christmas truly wonderful. We tend to think that if we bought the big, the more and the new, we are truly giving our loved ones what they need.

This Christmas, I'm thinking of finding creative means to express my love to my friends and family. Probably I'll start by remembering all of them in my prayers. By thanking God that I have them as friends and family members. Then I'll tell them how important they are to me and how blessed my life has been because of them.

And then maybe, the gifts can come later.