In my family, the commercial aspect of Christmas has always been pretty well unattended to. For me and my two sisters, seventy-five dollars was about as much as my parents would spend on each of us for gifts, then we’d also usually get a bunch of little things (from the dollar store I suspect); you know, just so there was stuff to open on Christmas morning. Well, to a youngster, this can seem somewhat traumatic—especially when all of your friends are getting gaming systems and CD players (it took a while before we finally got either of those). It was never because my family was financially strained. In fact, I presume growing up we had more money than my parents let on, but that’s not really the point. The point is my parents didn’t make a big deal about gifts, and regardless of how much we fussed and moaned they just wouldn’t do it. Well, as I’ve grown up, it has turned out to be good trauma; my parents did us a favor.

As I was reading today in my book, The Sinfulness of Sin by Ralph Venning, he said something strikingly well articulated. Mr. Venning writes, “take riches here for the present, while they are at their best; the pains of getting, the cares of keeping, and the fear of losing, eat out the comfort of having.” That’s part of the way I felt about my old car. I had a 2003 Honda CR-V. Great car. But I spent so much time working to pay for it, and worrying about breaking it, that it made it difficult to really enjoy having it.

Mr. Venning also writes, “A man’s aim is satisfaction, but the eye is never satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing (Ecclesiastes 1:8). Now if these things cannot satisfy the senses, much less can they satisfy the souls of men.” During this season, I wonder what it would look like if we really abandoned the commercial holiday of Christmas (in our hearts) and embraced what the day is really supposed to be marking. Next year, we will be unsatisfied again. Even after chasing this year’s satisfaction. Then the year after that, it’ll be the same story. I, for myself, truly want to abandon that forever. How can the church be taken seriously when even we, by our actions, are teaching our kids and families to crave the best presents? I mean, we’re not just taking about December 25^th. We’re taking about the birth of God in the flesh, savior to mankind, the great I AM! How could we still be tapping our foot in anticipation of a Nintendo underneath that wrapping paper?

Please, don’t get me wrong, in many ways I’m a great transgressor of what I speak of here. But I wish so much for us, me included, to abandon those materialistic ways and instead cling to God in new ways, for deeper satisfaction and for a greater degree of His glory!

Your response: