Well, over the past few weeks there’s been a certain kind of video I’ve been unable to scroll past - Christmas gift reaction videos. You know the ones – short, candid videos of someone unwrapping an unexpected gift long wished-for or hoped after. The recipients might gasp in disbelief, scream with excitement, or burst into happy tears - simply overcome with gratitude and joy.
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There was one video of a teenage girl who peeled back the wrapping paper revealing a glimpse of a steering wheel cover. Right away she leapt up from the floor and started dancing, then dashed through the house, out the front door, over the lawn, and finally around to the backyard where she saw her gift - a car! After hugging the car, she danced back to her dad to get the keys, jumped in, and drove away.
Another video was of a boy who unwrapped a shoebox containing a custom decorated pair of Nikes. They looked like a waffle cone with blue ice cream and colorful sprinkles, and were based on a design he had drawn. He was astonished and overwhelmed and absolutely pumped to see his vision come to life.
There was also one of a grandma unwrapping a gift from her adult grandson. It was a sweater, identical to the one he was wearing, which she had complimented each time he wore it. She immediately put it on, and the joy in her smile lit up the whole room.
In watching these videos, even of people I don’t know, even from the other side of a tiny screen, I can’t help but gasp and grin along with them. There’s just something about the way their reactions are so spontaneous and unguarded, something about the way they use their whole bodies to express their gratitude and joy. For all the angst wrapped up in the practice of gift-giving - angst about the money spent, and the challenge of what to buy, and the possibility that the gift will go unappreciated or unused - at its best, our gift-giving and receiving allows us to experience joy, wonder, gratitude, and the warm feeling of being truly seen and known by those who love us.
Yes, gifts were on my mind as I read through today’s second reading from Ephesians. This selection from the beginning of the letter offers an extensive review of the gifts from God the Father with which we have been blessed. The style of the passage communicates God’s abundant generosity and extravagant love - this is not a checklist of things we must do, but rather an outpouring of grace upon grace as it recounts what God has done and continues to do.
So what are these gifts with which we have been blessed?
In verse 5 we hear that in Christ we have belonging, receiving the gift of adoption as children. In the waters of baptism, through God’s love, we have been joined to Christ and the family of God. We are not strangers or foreigners, not outsiders who are shunned or excluded, but children of God - beloved, chosen, connected.
In verse 7 we hear that in Christ we have received the gift of redemption and forgiveness. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we are brought near to God. Nothing can separate us from the love of God - not sin or brokenness, not our failures or mistakes, not the things we do or fail to do, not even death. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In verse 9 we hear that in Christ we have received the gift of revelation of the divine will, as God has made known to us God’s desire to gather up all things in heaven and on earth. As we live in the midst of illness and disease, war and violence, death and grief, it is a comfort to know that God does not desire this pain and brokenness for us. Instead, God’s intention, desire, and final goal is for wholeness and abundant life for all of creation.
In verse 11 we hear that in Christ we have received the gift of an inheritance - unearned, given simply out of God’s lavish generosity and our status as children of God. Together with all of God’s children, we inherit abundant, eternal life with God, experienced now and in the future.
In verse 13 we hear that in Christ we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, marked with that seal in baptism which claims and designates us as God’s own. The Holy Spirit strengthens and empowers us to live as God’s people - to live lives of love and service in relationship with God and in community with one another.
We receive, we experience, these gifts - God’s grace - in tangible ways. In the waters of baptism, in the communion meal, in the word - read, and proclaimed, and sung - God comes close to us, giving us salvation, forgiveness, and life. These gifts are not earned, or deserved, or purchased, but rather given by a good and generous God to all of God’s beloved children.
Through these gifts, we see glimpses of who God is and what God is like. God is merciful and loving, and desires to draw us into relationship with God and with all creation. In these gifts, we experience joy, wonder, gratitude, and the warm feeling of being truly seen and known by the one who loves us. With these gifts, we are equipped to live lives of praise.
We praise God best, I think, by using what God has given us and by delighting in who God created us to be. Words and notes of thanks are nice, but isn’t it really the use of a gift that best shows our gratitude? It’s the teenage girl, joyfully running out to her new car and driving away, or the grandma, immediately donning her new sweater so she can match her beloved grandson.
In the same way, when we use the gifts with which God has blessed us, we are living lives of praise. When we support and care for one another as siblings in Christ, we praise God. When we confess our sin and trust fully in the promise of forgiveness, we praise God. When we call on the Holy Spirit to strengthen and empower us, we praise God. When we share this good news of great joy for all the people, we praise God.
The season of Christmas is coming to a close, but God’s gifts to us are unending. May we receive them joyfully, and live lives of praise.
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