Surprise Gifts.

Here’s what I love: Surprise gifts.  I love being surprised and I love surprising others—especially my children. 

It’s probably an understatement to say that Christmas takes a lot of preparation.  Some people start in August with buying gifts and stacking up stocking stuffers.  And even though commercial Christmas has burdened us with too much cooking and too much decorating and too much buying, there is usually someone we are truly excited about gifting. 

This year, at an auction, I was so pleased to find a set of prints similar to ones Bill has been wanting.  I knew he’d like to have them and was so happy to hide them away, then wrap them up and put them under the tree. 

Of course we were so excited to watch the girl’s faces as they opened their gifts.  I love seeing their eyes twinkle as they pull off the bow and rip off the wrapping.  Then comes the intense stare of expectation as the box pops open.  This is generally followed by appropriate expressions of approval and gratitude.  However, if there is something particularly great inside, the reactions are more the ear-piercing variety—squeals and screams and kicking and cheering etc.

We saw that from both girls this year as they each received things that they had been deeply desiring.  It’s so fun to get a gift for someone when you know it’s something they’ve been wanting.

It’s also wonderful to receive a gift that reminds us of the giver.

In college when Bill and I were preparing to part ways for the summer, he gave me a stuffed lion (this was because I often said that he looked like a lion with his flowing red hair and goatee.)  He gave me this lion so that I would remember him, so that I would think of him. 

Similarly, Jesus gave us the gift of His constant presence in the Spirit.  We can’t see, touch or hear it, but it’s a beautiful and useful gift nonetheless.  After all, the best gifts are the ones given from the heart and which touch the heart. 

I look forward to the huge Christmas-dinner-like feast in heaven.  I welcome the day when the Lord will hand me gifts that He’s been preparing and storing just for me.  There are sure to be lovely, amazing, unimaginable things to experience in Heaven. 

“No eye has seen,    no ear has heard,no mind has conceived    what God has prepared for those who love him”—

But not all of God’s gifts are reserved for the future.  In fact, He blesses us with so many of them here and now.  

James 1:17 tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from God.  Evening sun, sweet smells, children’s laughter, a hand to hold, friends, good books, hot coffee, snowy fields, warm sands, wine and late-night talks, morning glories, pizza parties, sleeping babies, time to write, works of art, root beer floats, kids with dimples, kids without, daisies, cities, fireflies, sushi, comfy shoes, and a consoling hug.  The list goes on and on.  Pretty much anything we are thankful for is a gift from the greatest Giver of all time. 

But the best gift is Emmanuel—God with us.  He came first in the form of a baby, but now without any form or fashion.  The Holy Spirit—an unfathomable presence here with us.

The Holy Spirit IS our gift, but we “open” up new aspects to Him all the time.  New understandings, new comforts, and new joys are all part of the gift of His existence in our lives. 

God knows our deepest desires.  And He knows that they can only truly be met in Him alone.   So, He offers Himself to us as a baby, as a savior, in the truth of His word, in His promise to return, and daily—in unexpected ways—surprise gifts to remind us of Him and to show that He loves us.