From the waist upwards he was like a man, but his legs were shaped like a goat's.... One of his hands...held an umbrella: in the other arm he carried several brown paper parcels. What with the parcels and the snow it looked just as if he had been doing his Christmas shopping. He was a Faun. And when he saw Lucy he gave such a start of surprise that he dropped all his parcels.
~ C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, p8
There was a day when people didn't go shopping at Christmas. It's only been in the past two hundred years that gift-giving as we know it has been a tradition. Just think about how affordable and hassle free Christmas used to be! It used to be that the poor working class and peasants would go door to door of their landowners and other wealthy merchants asking for ale and bread and meats. There was a time where the story of St. Nicholas spurred members of the church to collect items for the poor who would struggle to survive during the long winter season.
When you go about your shopping, be sure to include some purchases for some of the people in your life who have some ongoing needs. Be sure to share some gifts with them that will help them through the long winter months. And when you shop, don't confuse expressions of love with the expensiveness of the gift. Costly gifts which increase unaffordable debt are no comparison to the thought-full gifts that are reminders of your ongoing kindness and patience, loyalty and joy.
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world.
Ephesians 1v4 (NIV)
God did not go shopping for you! God doesn't need to shop around for good gifts for us. He knows what we need before we do! He generously gives us all that we need - when we need it, and when we want what he has to give us. He's chooses to love us, to give good gifts to us every day. It's almost like with God everyday is Christmas day - a day of new beginnings, a day of good gifts, a day of being surprised by how He shows up in our life.
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