God’s Gift Wrapping

Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Romans 12:4-8 NLT

It’s that time of year again when we think about gifts and giving. I will be forever grateful to whoever came up with the idea of putting gifts in a sack and stuffing tissues into the opening. This ranks as one of the greatest innovations of the twentieth century.

My mom came from the school of gift-giving where every gift was carefully opened using a knife and scissors to cut the tape. Tearing paper was not allowed! After the gifts were opened, we had to carefully refold the paper and store it for the following year. She was very frugal and artsy-craftsy, and would invent creative ways to reuse the same paper. I learned to endure all this, because to get the gift you have to deal with the package.

By contrast, I am completely useless when it comes to artistic things. I am amazingly incompetent at wrapping gifts. If it can be torn, I will tear it. If it needs to be carefully folded, my OCD kicks in. It may take me all day to fold the T-shirts coming out of the dryer. I even trim the tomatoes on my sandwich so that they fit the bread perfectly. Gift wrapping and unwrapping qualifies as trauma for me! Thank God for gift bags!

The church is a great big collection of gifts. Each one is unique. Each has its own wrapping. Like the bag on Santa’s back, the local church gathering contains something for everyone. When we gather, each person is the container of a gift from God. Depending on how the gift was packaged, it may or may not be attractive or easily accessible, but it is perfect because God never makes mistakes.

Remember two things when you walk into church this week. Firstly, God has given you a gift that is crafted perfectly to bless others. Don’t make it too difficult for them to unwrap. Secondly, everyone else in the room has a God-given capacity that is perfectly suited to meeting someone’s needs or enriching the church family. Don’t be put off by the packaging. The gift inside is perfect because the Giver is perfect. Don’t devalue the gift just because you don’t like the packaging. It will be worth the trouble to open it.