Balancing Greed and Joy

Now that we’re fully into November, and people are starting to be more outspoken about the number of days until Christmas, all the usual Christmas memes are starting to appear on Facebook.

But this year, I saw several friends with a new one that, at first glance, looks like a really good idea. Until I started thinking about it more carefully.

The little rhyme encouraging you to help you keep a hold on your kids’ Christmas presents goes: Something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this. I love the idea of cracking down on commercialism and making Christmas about Jesus instead of a focus on gimme gimme gimme.

BUT…

There’s a balance that we need to find. It’s likely that you, like I, have someone in your near family whose love language is gift giving. For me, it’s my dad. He’s not an effusive man verbally. He’s not one who’s going to run toward people through meadows with arms outstretched and indulge in long hugs. But he will, if you let him, give you the shirt off his back to show you his love. And he’s not motivated by thinking he’s buying anything of yours with his gifts. He is, plain and simple, a giver. And if you reject those gifts (either at the time of giving or preemptively by saying something like “we’re just not giving the kids more than these four things this year”), you hurt him. (Not that he’ll ever let on, mind you. But if you pay attention, you’ll notice.)

There’s joy in giving. And receiving. Find a balance that lets you keep the focus on Jesus (after all, that baby in the manger was God’s gift to us), without depriving the givers in your own life of their joy.