Are you planning on unwrapping your presents?

My boys are getting excited.  The presents have been put under the tree and much shaking and poking and prodding has been going on.   We have a routine on Christmas morning - boys get up ridiculously early and are allowed to open their stockings.  Then we have breakfast and I try to persuade them to wait until Grandma arrives mid morning before opening the tree presents.  But I usually fail in that and they all get ripped into before half past nine!  There is something hugely exciting about a big pile
of presents..... even when you are a bit older than ten.  It's really the only time of the year when we dedicate a whole section of a day to giving and receiving gifts.  And I love it.

A couple of years ago I wrote a sketch for church.   In the sketch a person arrives at the pearly gates laden down with carrier bags and is interviewed by St Peter  ( dont hang me for my theology, its supposed to be funny!)   Peter asks the person if they received the gifts God had given them throughout their life.   At which point the person dives into the bags and starts pulling out gift wrapped presents.  Each has a label describing the gift inside.   Healing, Prophecy, Knowledge, Hospitality, Mercy, Administration, Tongues, Wisdom, Faith, Patience,. Family, Friends, Talents.....
'Why are they still unopened and unused?' asks Peter.   'Well,  ummm,  I wasnt sure if they were really all for me.... and I didnt know how to use some of them.. and I didnt want to spoil them so I thought I'd just put them away and keep them safe'    And then Peter points out that God gives gifts because He loves us and that not receiving them hurts Him deeply.

There is someone in my family who is never satisfied with any present ever given.  Its a bit of a longstanding family joke that on Boxing day they can be found returning all the presents they have been given cos nothing is ever the right make, or size or colour or whatever.   It actually takes all the joy out of giving when you know that however hard you try your gift will be rejected.  In the end you give up.   I think that's sometimes how God feels when He pours out His goodness on us and we either don't receive it or don't actually use the gifts He has given us.

God loves giving.  He is doing it all the time.  And we take so much of it for granted.  But every now and again He likes to treat His kids to special things.  Ive started to look out for His presnet on my birthday.   It started a few years ago when I had a particularly difficult birthday and was feeling somewhat overlooked and under appreciated.  As I was shopping the day after and having a bit of a moan to Him about it, I felt Him say that I was to look out for a special present from Him.    I had been looking for a coat for ages.  I didnt exactly know what I wanted but I knew I hadnt found it despite having been looking on and off for months.  That very day I went into my local charity shop and there right on the first rail was the perfect coat, brand new still with the tags on, in my size, the the perfect colour for £5  !!    It was probably a £90 coat.   I think I laughed out loud as I picked it off the rail.    Now every year I keep my eyes open for God's birthday present to me.  Sometimes its a physical ' thing'  which comes to me in an unusual or unexpected way.  Sometimes it's not a thing but a happening or a person or something else.  

The practical gifts are easier to spot.  We usually receive them, although I think that often we miss the fact that God is the giver.  The spiritual gifts are trickier for many of us.  We either receive them and then neglect to use them very often.  Or we dont ask for them in the first place.  Or we think that we are somehow not worthy, qualified, mature enough etc etc etc  and leave it to others to exercise the gifts.   But the truth is that God loves to give us gifts.  And when we don't use them it makes Him sad.  Because all the gifts are needed in order for the church to be fully functioning and operating as the hands and feet and mouthpiece of Jesus in the world.
It is not enough just to receive the gift of Jesus this Christmas.  We need to gladly receive all that He came to bring, and the Holy Spirit who He left behind.