Opinion

Wrapping a gift in layers

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

It's nearly time to set up my annual gift wrapping assembly line.

Oh, it's not much. Just the kitchen table, wrapping paper, tape and scissors, and, of course, name tags so the gifts don't get mixed up.

I'm an adequate wrapper, meaning I can get the paper on straight (usually) and I don't waste paper over-wrapping. However, fancy ribbons and bows, other than the economy package at the local discount store, are beyond me.

I have received some pretty fancy packages in my day, be-ribboned, patterns on paper carefully matched, even with gift cards, not tags, attached.

All of it, whether meticulously wrapped or barely contained in mismatched scraps of wrapping paper, ends in a crumpled heap come Christmas morning. Danny's mom sets out a giant sized trash can liner before she lets anyone open anything at her house. Depending on the number of guests, and how carefully they compress their paper and ribbons, she can easily fill two or three bags.

One thing I've always wanted to do is the layered gift wrap. You know, a small but precious gift wrapped in a small box, wrapped in a slightly larger box, and so on, until one-fourth of the space under the tree is taken up by an enormous package, gaily decorated with ribbons and bows. I've disguised gifts by surrounding them with crumpled newspapers in an oversized box, but have yet to use the layered, decorated box idea. Guess wrapping paper is just too dear. (Apparently, I remember too many summers of saving the Sunday comics for Christmas wrap as a child.)

Better yet would be gifts wrapped in gifts, ending with that final precious gift revealed at the end.

Christmas is like that, a layered gift. Each year, another layer is unwrapped so that the gifting seems never to end.

Just as Jesus started out as wee babe in a manger, so too our faith is small. But just as Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature, carefully nurtured by Mary and Joseph, and later by his divine connection to God the Father, so too does our faith grow. If we are blessed to begin in a Christian home, then our nurturing in the faith comes primarily by the teaching and example of our parents. If we mature into faith later in life, then Christian friends -- brothers and sisters in the Lord, nurture our faith in the same way. So, too, does our faith grow as we spend time with God the Father in prayer, in worship and in studying and reading his Word, discovering there his nature, his character and his will.

And at this time of year, when we take time to reflect on our Savior's infant advent, the gift increases in keeping with our faith rate of growth.

This year we said good-bye to brothers and sisters in the Lord when they found it needful to move. Their leave-taking was made a little easier by the knowledge that, though we may never see them again this side of heaven, on that bright and glorious day of our Lord's second advent, there they'll stand with arms open wide. Time constraints so pressing here, always interfering with moments of fellowship, will be silenced forever there, and forevermore we'll know the joy of Jesus and of the family created at his first advent so long ago, still increasing today.

Just another layer to a gift of such magnitude it will take every moment eternity affords to reveal it fully.

"Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." Mark 3:34, 35 (NIV) and "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God -- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." John 1:12-13 (NIV)

Things you won't see in heaven:

Unopened gifts

Audio from KNGN 1360 AM:

http://www.kngn.org/mp3/Wrapping%20In%20Layers.mp3

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