In this season of gift giving, this is a pretty spectacular gift.What is more important than the money, however, is the heart that sent it. It overflowed with love and out came some money, too.
Love should be the reason for all gift giving; however, love is a sentiment that may get lost in this frantic season of tit for tat gifting. In our capitalistic culture, parity becomes the big issue and this is sad because the very nature of "gift" is that there are no expectations attached. Gifts are pieces of one's heart; they are a way to make seeable what is only feelable within us all. Gifts are love made visible.
The outcome of true gifts is out of our control. Our responsibility is to respond to God's leading and give; what the other does with our gift is between them and God. The gift to givers is the joy of knowing that they cared about someone else and added to the love and pleasure in the world.
The adage that it is "more blessed to give than receive" requires good givers, but it also requires good receivers who see the gift as the blessing that it is. Paul and I can't give back to the person who sent us the check yesterday; we can only pray for him or her and praise God for initiating the generosity. We must accept the gift of love without having to have earned it or return it. Our joy is the gift we give back, not something that comes in a box.
God's love is pure gift. The response that gives God the most joy is when we accept this love and give joy and thankfulness in return. Some of us have a hard time with that. We know we don't deserve God's love and so we loathe ourselves, we deny ourselves and we implore God to have mercy while all God wants to do is hold us, love us and reassure us. Sometimes we are too busy telling God that we are not worthy to experience the love God offers.
I wonder if God feels as we did many years ago when we invited someone who was new in town to stay with us while he looked for a place to live. We wanted to give him friendship and he treated us like a hotel. He wouldn't eat with us and he tried to give us money when he moved out. I know that he thought he was doing the right thing by not "bothering" us with his presence and paying his way so that he was not in our debt, but what we offered was treated like an economic transaction and not the gift that it was.
Merry Christmas is the message from our generous anonymous friend and it is a fitting one. The gift of the Babe, the gift of the Savior, the gift of the ever present Spirit of God living within us is simply that: gift. In our eagerness to be good givers this Season, may we not forget to be the most open of receivers as well.
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