Christmas Gifts

This Christmas I have been amazed at my wife’s dedication to giving gifts to others this season. While I can barely put together a few gifts for my family, she has been spending countless hours putting together all sorts of gifts for others.  She has prepared gifts for the Twelve Days of Christmas which she does each year for those she thinks could use a lift, and this year she picked three families and spent many hours getting those ready along with messages about the Savior (which makes 36 gifts her husband has to deliver!).  She also reached out to a friend of ours who has lots of connections with refugee families and has spent many more hours preparing small gifts for the children in some of those families.  When a friend of ours was doing a drive for kids in an elementary school in need, she helped gather a gift from each of our children to donate to the cause.  And when I sent her a list of items for a drive for a homeless shelter that my work is doing, by the time I got home from work that day she had prepared nearly three garbage sacks full of gifts to donate.  And of course there are the neighbor gifts and gifts for family members and many others that she has been trying to gather together the past several weeks.  Seeing her example, it’s no wonder that my eight-year-old has rallied his siblings into creating the “Christmas awards” in our basement in which they have gathered dozens of toys into gift bags and prepared notes for each other as gifts for Christmas. My wife tells our kids that Christmas is about giving, not receiving, and she surely puts that counsel into practice.     

             With all this gift giving in mind, I was particularly moved by the original Christmas song, The Gift that I saw performed live at a Christmas concert by Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband with several of my children this week.  It speaks of how Christ has the Gift in so many ways.  We of course commemorate those three gifts of the wise men when they “opened their treasures” and “presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh” by our own gift giving, but our presents should also be given in remembrance of the fact that He gives us the gifts really worth seeking, the “best gifts” that guide us to “peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (Doctrine and Covenants 46:8, 59:23, Matthew 2:11).  From Him we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, the great Comforter that can be our “constant companion” so that in this life we are never alone (Doctrine and Covenants 121:46).  From Him we receive “the gift of the grace of God” to give us His power and strength to overcome all our adversity in mortality (Ephesians 3:7).  From Him we receive countless “gifts of the spirit,” the gifts of knowledge, of faith, of healing, of miracles, of prophesy, and of many other gifts “for the benefit of the children of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 46:17-26).  From Him we can be “be partakers of the heavenly gift,” giving us “hope for a better world” and “an anchor” to our souls in this life (Ether 12:4, 8).  And from Him we can ultimately receive the gift of “eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 14:7).  Indeed, as this song proclaims, He has The Gift.  While giving is key to the Spirit of this Christmas season, we should not forget also to receive these great gifts that He has for us.  As the scriptures question us: “What doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift?” (Ether 12:8, D&C 88:33).  As we seek to come unto Him, we can receive these matchless gifts of love and peace and mercy and grace, of healing and hope and faith and forgiveness—all far greater than any mortal present we might unwrap.  As Paul wrote, “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15)!