The Gift You Keep
John 15:5
Years
ago, I was part of a Christmas Eve program at another church. As part of the program, a couple of teenagers
dressed up as Mary and Joseph and held a baby who was only a few months old,
while our youth minister sang a song called, “A Strange Way to Save the
World.” The song is sung from the
perspective of Joseph at that first Christmas, wondering why God chose to do
things this way. The chorus goes like
this:
“Why me?
I’m just a simple man of trade. Why
Him, with all the rulers in the world?
Why here beside this stable filled with hay? Why her?
She’s just an ordinary girl. Now,
I’m not one to second-guess what angels have to say. But this is such a strange way to save the
world.”
Our
youth minister was an excellent singer, but he was a youth minister. The spiritual gift of sarcasm is a job
requirement. In fact, I once said I was
changing his title to “Minister of Ridicule,” and he considered it a
compliment. He just wasn’t what you
would consider a tender kind of guy. But
as he sang this song, he started to choke up.
Tears were forming in his eyes and his voice was getting all husky and
broken. For a while, I thought he wasn’t
going to be able to finish the song. I
was astonished; I didn’t even know the guy had tear ducts! And then I suddenly realized: That baby those
teenagers was holding wasn’t just any baby; it was his baby. This was his first-born child. Afterward, I talked to him about it, and he
said, “I’ve sung that song before, but not since I became a dad myself. I guess I’ll never be able to sing it
again.” He had grown up in church. He had heard John 3:16 all his life: “For God
so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in
Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.” But
now, as he looked at his one and only son on that stage, he finally understood
how much that cost God. He thought about
how much he would hate to give up his baby boy; how he would fight anyone to
the death who wanted to harm his son. On
that day, he grasped in a way he never had before the amazing gift God gave to
you and me in giving us His only Son.
We
all know that Christmas is a time for giving and receiving gifts. Maybe the weirdest gift-giving tradition we
have in our culture is the White Elephant gift exchange. Sometimes this happens at Christmas parties;
we all bring stuff we don’t want, put it in Christmas wrapping, and exchange
it. There’s a complicated game involved,
where you have the option to trade your gift for something someone else
opened. People get furious with each
other, and isn’t that the point of Christmas parties? I’ve ended up with some truly fascinating
stuff at these exchanges. One year, I
came home with a “Redneck Briefcase,” which was actually a pair of wooden
handles glued to a large pair of men’s white cotton underwear. You’ll be glad to know it has never been
used. Another time, I came home with a
DVD copy of the film, “The English Patient,” which won the Academy Award for
Best Picture, but to my knowledge, no human being has ever actually watched the
film. I’ve heard that doctors prescribe
it to insomnia patients, along with the sermons of certain Baptist
preachers. We’re all familiar with that
tradition, but did you ever wonder why we call it a “White Elephant” gift
exchange?
Apparently,
long ago the King of Siam had a strategy for destroying his enemies. He would give them a gift: a baby albino
elephant. Albino elephants are extremely
rare, as you can imagine, and in Siamese culture, this animal was considered
sacred. So the recipient of the gift
would feel obligated to take excellent care of this baby elephant. As it grew larger and larger, caring for the
elephant would take up more and more of the man’s time, money and energy. Eventually, the man would be utterly destroyed
because of this gift.
Ironically,
the world tends to give white elephant gifts.
Often, the worst thing that can possibly happen to us is to get exactly
what we wanted. So a woman might get a
job she’s aspired to for years. But in
order to keep the job, she has to work long hours. She had always been active in ministry to the
disadvantaged, but now she doesn’t have time.
Not only do the poor miss out on her service, but she becomes much more
selfish as time goes by. Or a man buys a
house in an exclusive neighborhood, thinking he is truly providing for his
family. But he is so in over his head
with the mortgage, he never has any money to give to God’s work. He used to be generous, but now all his money
goes to pay for the house. Meanwhile,
his kids grow up learning that what matters most is money and status, which is
the opposite of what he hoped to teach them.
Or a family puts their child in a select baseball or softball or soccer
league. But the tournaments are all out
of town and on weekends, so they are rarely in church anymore. Soon, the entire family starts to drift
spiritually. Jobs, houses, youth sports
are all fine things. None of these are
things invented by the Devil, but he can use them to warp us. My question is this: Do you have any white
elephants in your life? Is there
anything in your life that makes you say, “If not for that, I could be more
consistent in worship, more active in ministry, more generous with my
resources, more disciplined in drawing near to God daily?” I am not saying you have to get rid of your white
elephant. But ask God, “What do I need
to in order to re-orient my life around your plan?” He will show you the way.
Compare that to the gift God gave us in
Jesus. He said in John 15, “I am the
vine and you are the branches. If anyone
abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing.” Two things about that: First of all, He’s
saying that He gives life. Just like a
branch gets its life from the vine it’s attached to, we get our life from our
union with Jesus. So the Devil uses
gifts to steal life from us, to make us busy and bitter and stressed-out and
tired. But Jesus is a gift that fills us
with hope, joy, peace, and transformed character. The second thing to note about this is that
Jesus says, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” If right now you’re not satisfied with your
life; if you feel like you’re lacking something important, you might be tempted
to think it’s a better job, a nicer house, or something else related to status
or possessions. And those things can
indeed be blessings, but they’re not what you are lacking. If you need more LIFE in your life, the
answer is to focus on being united with Jesus.
Remove from your life whatever stops you from being fully committed to
Him and dedicate yourself to drawing nearer to Him than you ever have
before. That is the gift you will never
want to return.
