Crawl into a box, and wrap yourself up as a gift to others...

What if we could wrap a box of love, and put it under the Christmas tree? What would it look like? Would it rattle if you shook it? Would it be heavy or light?

I am woefully behind on my Christmas preparations this year...there's no Christmas tree in my front room...no Christmas candles around the house....no presents wrapped, or even waiting to be wrapped! What is wrong with me??

When I was a kid, my Dad sometimes traveled for work, and periodically, my Mom would let me sleep with her while he was away...on those nights, she would tell me stories from her childhood...and one that comes to mind is Christmas. When my Mom was a young girl in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Christmas festivities didn't really begin at all until the week between December 18 and 25. During this week, the general mercantile store would add a toy department, and for just that one week...the kids would ooh and ahh over all the toys in the display window. Christmas trees went up on Christmas Eve, and often came down on the day after Christmas. It was nothing like we know today. I'm sure there's not a right and wrong about how to do Christmas, but remembering my Mom's childhood experience reminds me that it's okay if I don't have a tree up in November, and if I wait to do my shopping until the week before Christmas...it might be a good thing!

On the subject of gifts, I've had a quote in my mind since yesterday afternoon, and I can't seem to shake it:

"Love is an action, an activity. Genuine love implies commitment and the exercise of wisdom. It is the will to extend yourself for the purpose of nurturing the spiritual well-being of another..." -M. Scott Peck

How can I wrap up my love and put it under the tree this year? Can I crawl into a big box...perhaps an empty dishwasher or refrigerator box...and wrap myself up? Didn't God crawl into the box of human experience and wrap himself up as a gift to us? His gift of himself is what theologians (people who study and write about God all the time) describe as the "atonement."

In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul said it this way:

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for us. Very rarely will anyone die for a good man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Jesus left this legacy for the small group of friends that were his closest followers while he lived here on the earth...just before he died, he said this to them:

"My command is this: Love each other in the same way that I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

I don't know how these passages impact you, but to me, it seems like it would be alot easier to pick up an iTunes gift card and put that in the Christmas box. On any given day, I feel as if I'm nowhere near the kind of spiritual maturity it requires to give of myself in the way that Jesus describes...and yet...it is the calling of everyone who follows him.

Love...the ultimate gift...how far are we willing to extend ourselves for the spiritual well-being of another? Let's allow the question to roll around in the back of our minds as we wrap our Christmas gifts this year...