As we’re heading into Christmas, no doubt many of us are thinking about presents. Not just the presents we might like to get but the various presents we will buy for others. There is something especially lovely about thinking about others, what they might like, and seeing them really enjoy the thing that you bought them.
There wouldn’t be much that would disappoint me more than spending an absolute fortune on some amazing gift for my children only for them never to play with it. Obviously, if I miss the mark and get them something they don’t want that’s more frustration with myself that I either didn’t know them well enough or just got it wrong (shout out to all the folks who bought someone a football top because you know they support ‘a red team’ and inadvertently buy a Man Utd shirt for a Liverpool fan!) But I am even more disappointed if I get them something I know they’ll love – and they do love it and thank me for it – but still they never play with or use it. That doesn’t please me at all!
The reason I get my kids presents – and not only my kids, but my nieces and nephews, my parents and my friends – is because I want them to enjoy it. I don’t really have many skills of any use whatsoever, but one thing I’m alright at is getting presents. I don’t always get it right, but more often than not, I can generally land a decent gift. Even where I don’t hit the bullseye, I think most people can at least see why I thought the gift was a good idea for them. The execution may not be bang on, but the thought behind it (I hope) is clear enough. I like it when people really enjoy the gifts I get them and I can cope if they tell me I didn’t hit the mark but they get why I thought it might. I don’t mind really if people are honest and tell me they just didn’t really like what I got them altogether (they’re grateful for the thought but please don’t get a carpet sample catalogue again!) But I am most disappointed of all by the present that is received with great joy, one I know they really do want, but they just refuse to play with it or use it.
Just imagine, this Christmas, you buy your kids an absolutely fantastic gift. You know they want it and you absolutely know they’ll enjoy it. They unwrap it on Christmas Day and they are so pleased. They love it. It’s just what they wanted. But because it’s so special to them, they never use it. They just keep saying, ‘thank you for the gift’ over and over to you. When you encourage them to use it, they tell you it’s far too special. They just kind of stare at it, repeatedly telling you how grateful they are for it, but never actually enjoying it. Aside from being a bit weird, what a disappointment that would be! Ultimately, I don’t want them to keep saying ‘thank you’. Obviously, I want them to be grateful, but I really just want them to enjoy it. I’d get much more joy out of watching them enjoy the gift than I do from them just telling me how lucky they are to have it and how thankful they are I bought it without ever using it.
Yet, that is precisely how we often treat God and his good gifts to us. We spend all our time thanking God for them, telling him how amazing he is for giving them to us, without actually getting on and enjoying what he gives us. In fact, sometimes we insist his good gifts are so special we better not use them or enjoy them at all. In some particularly strange cases, we even call some of God’s gifts – specific gifts that the Bible expressly tells us are good – evil and bad as though he’s tricking us into enjoying stuff or that something he calls good is actually not. But it’s almost as if we often can’t or won’t do the one thing that God wants us to do with his good gifts; namely, enjoy them!
God does not delight in giving us good things only to watch us refuse to use them. He does not particularly want us to spend all day, every day, saying how wonderful and amazing he is for giving us stuff that we absolutely won’t touch or enjoy. God – just like most fathers – gives his children good gifts because he wants us to enjoy them. Surprise surprise, he takes greater pleasure in watching his children enjoy his good gifts than he does in them weirdly thanking him for stuff that they won’t actually use. He certainly isn’t pleased when he gives us good stuff and we turn round and tell him we can’t use it because it’s actually bad. Can you imagine turning round to almighty God, who has given us a good gift, and telling him he’s given us something that will either make us sin or is just plain bad for us? (one for the teetotallers among us to chew on.) But, of course, it applies to all of us. We can so easily call bad what God calls good and refuse to enjoy what God has given us to enjoy as though we are either more holy than him or just might offend him if we enjoy the thing he gave us.
When we put it in those terms, it sounds pretty nuts, doesn’t it? Calling evil what God calls good. Worrying that what God calls good we might actually enjoy and then he might be upset that we enjoyed it. Enjoying something and then anxiously wondering if we are enjoying it a bit too much even though God told us we could enjoy it because that’s why he gave it to us. in the end, God is most pleased when we actually enjoy the good stuff he gives us to enjoy. We will enjoy ourselves more when we happily, much like most children, just enjoy the good stuff God gives us to enjoy too. God is happier, and we are much happier, when we just enjoy his good gifts for what they are.
So, as we think about presents this Christmas, it pays to remember that God is not Scrooge. He loves to give us good gifts. Nor is he a perverse weirdo who gives us good gifts and then gets angry at us if we enjoy them. he gives us good gifts to enjoy and he takes pleasure in our enjoying them. Of course, he wants us to be grateful to him as the giver – which, as we all know, is minimally only polite! But we thank him best when we enjoy his good gifts and give glory to him as we enjoy them and he takes great pleasure in us as he sees us enjoying his good gifts and taking pleasure in him for giving them to us.
All of which is to say, we can actually enjoy Christmas this year. Enjoy all the trappings. Enjoy the food, the presents, the fun and all the rest. We can enjoy it, and give glory to God for it all, and he will take greater pleasure in us enjoying his goodness to us than he would with us sat not enjoying anything at all lest we anger him by enjoying what he gave us to enjoy in the first place.