The Art of Giving & Receiving
Saturday, December 29, 2007
I've been in a knitting frenzy this year. When I get home from work late at night, or on a Saturday afternoon, I can be found in my blue overstuffed chair with needles in hand. . . click clacking away. Hats, scarves, and purses have grown from my busy hands like flowers in a well-watered garden.
Whenever Jennifer and Ryker notice me knitting, they hover around me like fairies looking for a dusting of magic. "What are you making, Mommy? Who is that for?" They beg me to make something special for them. Even though I've taught them how to make scarves of their own (which they love to do, pulling out their own projects whenever I pull out mine) they still ask me repeatedly "Mommy, will you make me a scarf, too?"
This season my typical response was, "Someday, honey, I'll make you something special, but right now I'm making gifts for Christmas."
"Recall a Christmas when you gave a gift and it meant something special for you to give it, and recall a Christmas you received a gift and it meant something special for you to receive it."
The true joy of giving for me this year was realized in a last minute decision to knit a pair of neckwarmers for Jen and Ryker. Compared to the dozen, complicated, cable-knit purses I worked on this year, the neckwarmers were quick and simple. Simple, but when my kids opened those boxes with the feather-fan-stitched scarf-of-sorts, I know they felt noticed, included, special. The wooly circles will not only keep their necks and faces warm this winter, but they will be wearing a little of the much-sought-after Mommy-magic--my creative love and care.
Giving may be an art, but I think more so receiving. Especially with gifts that somehow transcend material value. It's humbling when a blessing stretches my soul's understanding of God's graciousness.
Several weeks before Christmas, my dear friend Lisa called me from her cell phone. Her voice was like static electricity. "Hi! Can I come over? I'm in the car on my way to your house!" Within minutes she was bouncing through my doorway with a surprise.
Lisa is a friend who has shared the journey of financial struggle. She and her husband own their own business, and with the loss of several income-generating accounts this year, they've been in the red for what seems like a long, life-altering season. She can relate to feelings of fear, and trying to trust God's plan and purpose. At the same time, she's my role model when it comes to generous living.
Now standing in my living room, with her unexpected surprise, Lisa's whole demeanor continued to zap with joy. She chimed, "I received a gift from my bible study group today! It's a Target gift card for $200. I went to Target and asked them to split it in half. I'm giving the other half to you!" As I stood there looking at the colorful card in my hand, my head hanging, she practically sang, "You can use it to buy some gifts for your kids!" I started bawling.
Even as I write this, I can't keep from crying all over again. Days before Lisa's arrival, we had scraped together every last penny to file for bankruptcy. It could have been a season of scarcity for us, for our kids, but God's generosity--shown through Lisa's joyful, open hands--elected that this would be a season of plenty. In the week to follow, other little miracles appeared: $50 here, another $50 there. I kept thinking, "God's mercies are new every morning." For the first time in a long time, compassion and grace were not just understood theologically, but truly felt.
About gift giving, Shea says this:
"Gift giving is another example of a custom that reflects the Light at the center. It is also the custom that many people think reflects the winter darkness.
There is a delightful vignette about a major department store that specializes in outrageous and superexpensive gifts. One year it was "her and her" camels. Another year the brainstorm was gold, frankincense and myrrh. The Wise Men would have been pleased. However, there was a problem. No one at the store was sure what myrrh was or how to get it. So they called a Scripture scholar at the local seminary. He told them, 'Myrrh is a perfume made from the gum of a tree that grows in Arabia. It was used in many ways, most notably in the process of embalming. It was a gift that probably symbolized the death of Christ and by implication the sacrifical character of all Christian living.'
His explanation was not featured in the advertisement, but it pointed to a truth about gift giving that [G.K] Chesterton, as usual, expressed very well:
P.S. What are your stories related to Shea's gift giving/receiving question? I'd love to hear!
Whenever Jennifer and Ryker notice me knitting, they hover around me like fairies looking for a dusting of magic. "What are you making, Mommy? Who is that for?" They beg me to make something special for them. Even though I've taught them how to make scarves of their own (which they love to do, pulling out their own projects whenever I pull out mine) they still ask me repeatedly "Mommy, will you make me a scarf, too?"
This season my typical response was, "Someday, honey, I'll make you something special, but right now I'm making gifts for Christmas."
One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year was "Starlight" by John Shea. Each page of the book is its own gift. With 253 pages to savor, I'll be unwrapping this read throughout the New Year! (Thanks again Michelle!) In a chapter titled The Soul and the Season, Shea suggests an exercise:
"Recall a Christmas when you gave a gift and it meant something special for you to give it, and recall a Christmas you received a gift and it meant something special for you to receive it."
The true joy of giving for me this year was realized in a last minute decision to knit a pair of neckwarmers for Jen and Ryker. Compared to the dozen, complicated, cable-knit purses I worked on this year, the neckwarmers were quick and simple. Simple, but when my kids opened those boxes with the feather-fan-stitched scarf-of-sorts, I know they felt noticed, included, special. The wooly circles will not only keep their necks and faces warm this winter, but they will be wearing a little of the much-sought-after Mommy-magic--my creative love and care.
Giving may be an art, but I think more so receiving. Especially with gifts that somehow transcend material value. It's humbling when a blessing stretches my soul's understanding of God's graciousness.
Several weeks before Christmas, my dear friend Lisa called me from her cell phone. Her voice was like static electricity. "Hi! Can I come over? I'm in the car on my way to your house!" Within minutes she was bouncing through my doorway with a surprise.
Lisa is a friend who has shared the journey of financial struggle. She and her husband own their own business, and with the loss of several income-generating accounts this year, they've been in the red for what seems like a long, life-altering season. She can relate to feelings of fear, and trying to trust God's plan and purpose. At the same time, she's my role model when it comes to generous living.
Now standing in my living room, with her unexpected surprise, Lisa's whole demeanor continued to zap with joy. She chimed, "I received a gift from my bible study group today! It's a Target gift card for $200. I went to Target and asked them to split it in half. I'm giving the other half to you!" As I stood there looking at the colorful card in my hand, my head hanging, she practically sang, "You can use it to buy some gifts for your kids!" I started bawling.
Even as I write this, I can't keep from crying all over again. Days before Lisa's arrival, we had scraped together every last penny to file for bankruptcy. It could have been a season of scarcity for us, for our kids, but God's generosity--shown through Lisa's joyful, open hands--elected that this would be a season of plenty. In the week to follow, other little miracles appeared: $50 here, another $50 there. I kept thinking, "God's mercies are new every morning." For the first time in a long time, compassion and grace were not just understood theologically, but truly felt.
About gift giving, Shea says this:
"Gift giving is another example of a custom that reflects the Light at the center. It is also the custom that many people think reflects the winter darkness.
There is a delightful vignette about a major department store that specializes in outrageous and superexpensive gifts. One year it was "her and her" camels. Another year the brainstorm was gold, frankincense and myrrh. The Wise Men would have been pleased. However, there was a problem. No one at the store was sure what myrrh was or how to get it. So they called a Scripture scholar at the local seminary. He told them, 'Myrrh is a perfume made from the gum of a tree that grows in Arabia. It was used in many ways, most notably in the process of embalming. It was a gift that probably symbolized the death of Christ and by implication the sacrifical character of all Christian living.'
His explanation was not featured in the advertisement, but it pointed to a truth about gift giving that [G.K] Chesterton, as usual, expressed very well:
There were three things prefigured and promised by the gifts in the cave of Bethlehem concerning the Child who received them;
that He should be crowned like a King,
that He should be worshipped like a God;
and that He should die like a man.
And these things would sound like Eastern flattery, were it not for the third."
Receiving and giving gifts is not about flattery or amassing possessions, but about the sacrificial giving of life to one another."
The greatest sacrificial gift ever given? Jesus--Love incarnate!
P.S. What are your stories related to Shea's gift giving/receiving question? I'd love to hear!
