About a month ago everybody was gearing up for Christmas and something was pushed in front of me that made my feelings quite clear. It was a present that apparently led the person receiving it to something eternal. I mostly got boredom and smugness out of it, but I'm not sure if that's what they were going for. And with the gift in my hands I suddenly realized what's so off-putting. The present is a lie. I'm sure what it says inside isn't really a lie, but to me (not actually having read it) it certainly felt like one. You see, Christianity is about believing in a God that is bigger than humanity, since, you know, he created it and all. I have a hard time believing you can fit a God like that into a card or a booklet. He managed to begin to explain himself in a few hundred pages, but hey he's God. Even more than the vastness of God is the exact difference between what he claims and what the gift presents. The gift gives a 5 step plan or an introduction to a better life. I'm not sure if God really ever leads with that. As far as I can tell, and Christ is constantly showing this, he let's people fall. Now its the kind of fall that 4 year olds make to skin their knees, not the fall that 7 year olds make to break their arms. It's gonna hurt and its gonna sting, and worst of all its gonna be there for a while. But, like a good father and friend, Christ comes running to pick us up and cradle us. This is the big difference for me.
God is not a gift, not a present, he is something to have a relationship with. And we all know relationships do not fit in cards. They are daily struggles, fights, laughs, and shared experience. This is the truth that God presents. This is the beginning of himself that he fits in those few hundred pages--a relationship. To me, the "Christian gift bag" is filed in with the cards I get from distant friends and family whom I've never met, but I'm assured at one point they were close with a family member two generations ago. It's nice and all, but its not really like the gift I get from a best friend. Before we start handing out gifts left and right to people let's actually get to know each other. It becomes infinitely more meaningful. Now my Christian friends may be doubting this last statement a little and be thinking "but God gives gifts to all his children whether they know him or not." And certainly I must agree, but I have one more brief analogy for you. Think of the new mother and father of a child on his first Christmas. Not much of a two way relationship brewing there, but I've never heard of parents who ignored their child whether or not he was aware of what love was contained inside the wrapping paper.
To be honest I think that's where most of us spend a lot of our time. Seeing a bright shiny new present without concern as to whom it came from (though its particularly specific to my needs and personality). Rarely we might get to the stage those 4 year olds with skinned knees get to. We tear into our presents rushing to get to the next unopened thing, then take a quick run around the room, give a brief hug to whoever gave us the present, say "I love you" then move on. Of course the next day we are crying because no new presents came. But, when we are open to God's grace we sometimes briefly see what he has truly given us amidst all the gifts. And here is the best part, he's been holding up our relationship the whole time, and the moments where I see that loving connection are the most valued of my life. I just wish I could remember to look at who gave me the gifts more than I look at the newest present in my life--because that is a life worth living, one very appealing, one full of relationships rather than full of gifts.
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