My son, Jason, loved Christmas when he was a little boy. Anticipation started building before Thanksgiving and escalated from then until December 25th.
Presents were a source of extra excitement, and he made it easy to shop for gifts. Jason was probably the only kid in America with Walmart, Toys R Us, and other stores on speed-dial. I’d hear him, “Excuse me, sir. Could you tell me how much ______ is?”
And then he’d give me his Christmas list. Oh my, it was a thing of beauty, with snow-capped letters, color graphics and everything so organized that Martha Stewart would have been in awe.
The gift ideas were ranked in the order of how much he wanted them. I remember him saying, “Here are 15 gift ideas. If you only get me five, start at the top and work your way down.”
He included details such as the best store to buy the item, price, special features, color and size, and even added the UPC code numbers. With his attention to detail, there was no way I could possibly buy the wrong thing.
Jason is a daddy now with children of his own, but every Christmas, I think of his lists from long ago, and they make me smile.
But that’s not the end of the story. His Christmas lists as a man aren’t much different than they were when he was a little boy. Jason doesn’t include the snow-capped letters and color graphics, but everything else is almost the same. Well, except that he’s updated now to computer links instead of UPC codes, and little boy toys have changed to things a man would want.
Which brings me to his list from last year. I cracked up when I saw all the detail on it, but I also teared up a bit with the reminder of how blessed I’ve been to have Christmas memories with my family.
Jason had sensible gift ideas on the list—things like a new suit, shirts and ties, and some commentaries to help him in his role as a youth pastor. And then the leftover kid in him came out.
He bought a beat-up Samurai a few years ago. He loves that crazy vehicle and has made many improvements to it in his spare time. The grin on his face when he drives it looks just like that little boy of mine from so many years ago. Last year’s list was filled with a variety of ideas for the Samurai ranging from lug nuts, a sound system, door panels, etc.
You know what I did? I skipped right over the sensible ideas and bought him the things for his Samurai that I knew would make his face light up. And it did. The smile on his face was reflected on mine, because it’s my joy to make my sons happy.
Sweet friends, sometimes we forget that it brings God joy to give things to us. Today would be a great time for you to make a list of things you’d like from Him. Yes, the sensible requests are awesome (and He loves it when we ask for things so we can serve Him more), but the God who gave us the reason for Christmas also loves to give us the delights of our hearts.
So make a list for Him today—and then follow that up with a list of things that you could do for Him as a special gift of love this Christmas. And I don’t think He’ll mind if you don’t include snow-capped letters.
