Re-gifting

Well, that’s it, Christmas is over for another year – my son said yesterday that it’s only 363 days ’til Christmas! I hope this year was filled with grace and peace for you and yours, and that you are eagerly anticipating the coming year.

As I looked around this morning at the gifts that were given it occurred to me that there are some gifts that were wanted and some… well, not so much. And it is these “unwanted” gifts that usually find their way into the re-gifting box that will be used at some other time to bless someone else I used to think that this was wrong, but being thrifty I now see the value in such a practice – as the saying goes, ‘another person’s junk is another person’s treasure,’ something I know only too well after all the garage sales I went to this year.

As I looked around at the gifts I began thinking about how re-gifting can be used as a spiritual metaphor. The way that worldly re-gifting works is that you get a gift or something you don’t really want and then decide to pass that gift on to someone else, thereby ridding yourself of that gift. However, the way that spiritual re-gifting works is that we have been given Jesus who comes with all kinds of benefits, which include, among many other things, healing, peace, salvation, grace, love, and eternal life. Now we might never think of re-gifting such a wonderful gift, and let’s face it no one in their right mind would ever despise or want to get rid of such a gift. But the Bible tells us that we are to “Give as freely as (we) have received!” Matthew 10:8 (NLT)

In short we are to share our gift with others. Jesus is not a gift we can keep all to ourselves as He Himself told us to “Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples.” Matthew 28:19 (CEV)

2010 is almost upon us which means that we are one step closer to the return of Christ. Without doubt that will be a glorious time for those who believe, but what about those who don’t yet believe? John 3:16 tells us that “God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die” (CEV) This text informs us that all people everywhere have been offered the gift. However, there are billions of people in this world who have not yet received and opened the gift because they are unaware that it (or He) has even been offered?

Let’s make 2010 the year of re-gifting, in the sense that we go and share our gift with others. Think about the feeling of such gratitude and excitement you felt when you received and opened the gift. Now go and share with others that they too might know what it is to receive the best, most life-changing gift they will ever be given.

Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
December, 2009