Katrick: The fine art of wrapping gifts
By now, I’d imagine, most of you are at least thinking about wrapping Christmas gifts and storing them away in some safe, secret kid-proof, spouse-proof place. This is only an educated guess, not based on any polling data, but I’m wondering if you and I spend more time putting paper, ribbons, bows and name tags on presents, than we do purchasing them.
Some of us (like me) are willing to pay a professional to do this, because we aren’t so very good at it. And to think that these painstaking efforts are all undone in a matter of seconds, torn to bits and pieces and thrown into a big box for recycling.
So how did this “unofficial” ritual of the Advent season all get started? According to wikipedia.org, “The use of wrapping paper is first documented in ancient China, where paper was invented in the second century B.C. In the 20th century, “the innovations of Rollie and Joyce Hall, founders of Hallmark Cards, helped to popularize the idea of decorative gift-wrapping.”
No one wraps and stashes away a Christmas present like God does. For example, the greatest gift of our Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ, God’s one and only begotten Son, was hidden away in a manger, where no one would have ever thought of looking for him.
And no one papers over in the pre-dawn darkness, the spectacular sunrises we see this time of year, like the Creator can. For sheer, breathtaking beauty, there’s nothing that rivals a crisp, clear December morning, with its soft, soothing pastels, stretching across the horizon like the broad brush strokes of our Divine Artist.
The best part is that when the ribbons and bows and wrappings of each day are undone, they reveal a most precious gift – the grace-filled love of the Christ Child, that came down from Heaven to save us, make and shape us into instruments of God’s hope, peace, joy and love.
The question this begs is how can we be gifts to God and one another, waiting to be unwrapped, not only in this Christmas season, but in all our seasons to come.
For “each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:10-11)
Mark Katrick is a pastor and spiritual director.
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Katrick: The fine art of wrapping gifts
