All I Want For Christmas

A song from my memories of Christmas past is "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth."  The tag line was, "so I can wish you Merry Christmas!"   To understand this, ask Grandma to say "wish" without her teeth in. 

In reality, we tend to want much more for Christmas.  In fact, we tend to expect and demand more. If we don't get what we want or don't want what we get (different scenarios with a similar outcome), we are generally bumbed out and quickly lose our Christmas Spirit, if indeed we truly had any. 

An epic illustration of this is seen in the movie classic, "A Christmas Story," where a young boy's only desire for Christmas is BB gun. Any other outcome would be devastating.  I recently heard of a husband who got his pregnant wife a pair of "training shoes" to work off the baby fat in the spring. You can probably imagine her response. 

Giving the perfect gift or the perfect amount of gifts can be a real chore, largely because we already have so much that are wants and expectations tend to be so high. People who have little or nothing rejoice when they receive anything. People who have much don't rejoice over much, they rejoice over very specific things and very specific amounts of gifts. 

I think we really struggle with the whole Christmas experience, which was, in the beginning, about giving: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son..." (John 3:16). And the Wise Men brought gifts. No one was expecting or demanding gifts. 

Tandie and I, chose this year to not get ourselves anything because we have everything in Christ and with each other. We were blessed to instead be able to give to others, which feels really good. It is as the Lord said, "more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).  

Jus' Sayn and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!