The Best Gifts

The Best Gifts

Matthew 2:1-12

            Why do we give gifts at Christmas?  I’ve heard different answers.  One is that we give gifts because God gave us a gift—Jesus Christ, and all that gift represents.  Another answer is that the magi brought gifts to the Christ Child, so we give each other gifts to commemorate their generosity.  In fact, some cultures give gifts on Epiphany (the celebration of the arrival of the magi) rather than on Christmas Day. 

            There are some lovely legends about gifts given on Christmas Eve.  One that I like is said to have happened during a Christmas Eve service in a church where it was believed that if a gift of sufficient generosity was given, the church’s bells would spontaneously ring.  After everyone had brought their gifts—some as spectacular as a crown and heaps of gold—a little boy brought one silver coin.  His older brother had started to church with him, but stopped on the way to help an old woman who had fallen in the snow.  He knew if he didn’t care for her she would freeze to death.  As the younger brother laid the coin on the altar, the bells began to ring.

            There are other stories like this.  The song “The Little Drummer Boy” comes to mind.  In each case the gift brought forth a response—not for its value in earthly wealth, but for the value added because it was given from a loving heart.

            In the 1950’s there was a TV show I loved to watch on Thursday nights.  I was usually home alone because of my parents’ involvement in church activities which were intended for adults rather than for pre-teens.  The show was Dragnet.  It featured Detective Joe Friday (actor Jack Webb) of the Los Angeles Police Department.  I’m sure he had fewer lines each episode than any other central figure on any TV show in history.  A man of few words, he and his partner managed to solve whatever case they were given each week in less than a half hour.  Perhaps he could solve the cases so easily because he didn’t waste time talking.

            One year, around Christmas time, Friday and his partner were sent to a church.  The pastor greeted them at the door and told them the statue of the baby Jesus had gone missing from the manger scene.  He couldn’t imagine why someone had taken the figure, but it was definitely gone.  There were no suspects.

            The detectives spent most of the half hour that night interviewing anyone who might have seen the theft, or have any idea who might have taken it—to no avail.  Near the end of the show they were no closer to solving the case than they had been at the beginning.

            Then a little boy arrived at the church pulling a red wagon.  In the wagon was the baby Jesus.  Friday asked the boy why he had taken the figure.  The answer was simple.  He had prayed hard to Jesus for a wagon for Christmas.  If he got the wagon, Jesus would get the first ride.  The boy got the wagon, the baby got the ride.  Case solved.

            O, that we might have such simple faith!  O, that we might have such overwhelming gratitude!  We who receive blessings upon blessings every day of our lives often forget to be thankful for them.  Is it because we are overwhelmed by so many?  Or is it because we expect them as a matter of course—our due?  Perhaps we get so busy with our daily lives that we forget to show our gratitude to the God who so richly blesses us.

            In each of these stories it was a simple gift that “rang the bells.”  The humble piety of a child, uncorrupted by the world’s values expressed a love of God that touched both human hearts and God’s heart.

            This Christmas season remember to give God thanks for all God has done for you.