It's easy to get cynical about the material aspects of Christmas.
How often do you hear people say things like, "It's not about the presents, it's about Jesus."
That's true. I'm not about to debunk that.
But sometimes, I think, people can get goofy about the dangers which presents pose. Some people became nigh afraid of presents, that they will spoil children, that the shiny paper and bows will crowd out the Nativity scene. (Or, in even worse scenarios, there is the ungotten present becomes a distraction through its conspicuous absence among all the things one didn't really want that much.)
This year, though, I was a bit stunned by the sheer generosity that went around at Christmas. Maybe it stemmed from celebrating the first Christmas morning ever with my wife. From finding rare action figures in a bogo two-pack to framing my old Transformers the Movie poster without me even realizing it, from checking off my Amazon reading wishlist to collaborating with my brother-in-law to get an old Gamecube and retro-Zelda collection so I could finish off a twelve-years of unfinished business with Ganondorf in Ocarina in Time--she really outdid herself this year.
And, then, of course, there were presents from parents, and grandparents, and siblings. Gifts, upon gifts, upon gifts seemed as though they just kept pouring in, day after day. I received far more than I needed to this Christmas, and certainly far more than I deserved.
While it would obviously be wrong to become preoccupied with such material concerns, I think even this speaks to the glory of God.
Have you ever had the experience of finding the present that Santa must have forgot to wrap or put under the tree? Sometimes it shows up days after Christmas. My encounter with this was when I was five or so years old and Santa accidentally left a coffee table book on military vehicles in the family hamper. (That might not sound like much of a present for a kid, but you have to remember I grew up in the age of G.I.Joe, when they sold toy M-16s that didn't even have orange caps on the end.) It was a little extra bit of Christmas that came as a delight and a surprise.
Isn't Heaven pretty much going to be the experience of God's overflowing generosity? A superabundant Christmas morning followed by an eternity of finding presents that Santa forgot to leave under the tree?
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