Did you ever think of how a gift is like an onion? I see a brightly wrapped box. Then as I unwrap it, it becomes a sequence of clues, and a challenge not only to discover what it is, but how I should act receiving it. Will I like it or not? How will I act if I do not so that the giver is not hurt? Then it becomes a thing, an object that I can identify, that has a connotation, a name that it is generally called. It is, for example, a toaster.
“A toaster", I might exclaim, and before the words reach the nearest wall, it becomes a matter of why-ness. Why did this person give me a toaster? I look at the toaster, but it gives me no answer. So I look at the face of the giver.
I’ll introduce a hierarchy here. Why does someone give us a particular gift?
- because they didn’t like it, and “re-gifted” it . . . not so good at all
- because they liked it, and thought I would . . . not so bad, but well, maybe not so good, either;
- because they thought we’d like it . . . which is benevolent, but questionably valid;
- because they knew some truth about us that we thought we’d not disclosed, that we’d hidden adeptly, and this gift responds to that truth.
No matter what we think of the Bible, it’s a great source of stories. Next Sunday’s is a real onion of a story, about a Tax Collector who climbs a tree to see this Messiah character, and is given a gift. Here’s a LINK.
I look forward to looking a t this story with you over the next few days. Perhaps you’ll read the story, and then consider your experiences of receiving gifts, perhaps by looking at each of the “becauses” in the hierarchy above.
The gift of today!
ReplyDeleteToday I began a new “job”! Encouraging me was my pastor who told me that at church I would meet Christians but at the center for helping the poor I would meet Christ!
Before going I asked God, “How will I know You?”
The answer was for me to take time to reflect when I got home. And so this late afternoon I sat by the creek and thought about the day.
The first thought that came to mind was that as beautiful as this place is, and it was magnificent today, I had seen the REAL beauty of this life, The Body of Christ. I thought, I can hear the wind so loud, all around me. It blows the force of the Christ life in us!
The constant rush of the creek told me of life pulsing through the people. In the caress of the falling leaves I saw the tiny girl’s smile I had enjoyed today. The bird song seemed to chide and remind me of the old lady’s pains and complaints. The rocks in the water divert the stream but they do not stop the flow of life. All goes forward under the creator’s eyes of pure love.