Daniel Seabaugh

The Christmas wish list. Oh, how diligently I prepared mine as a child. Nothing was left to chance. All the precise details about all the wonderful toys and gadgets I dreamed of made their way onto my list.

My all-time favorite gift was a complete skateboard. But not just any complete skateboard—this was a Blind unplugged, with Independent trucks, Spitfire wheels, and Lucky bearings and hardware. I spent hours choosing these components from a skate catalog, not the digital kind, but a real, paper copy that the mailman delivered to my house monthly. It provided all the necessary resources to get my wish list in tip-top shape.

Yes, I could craft a masterful Christmas wish list. Yet, while receiving gifts is wonderful, I’ve learned there’s a better way to approach the whole conversation. When I became a Christian, I was deeply challenged by a verse in the Bible. It says,

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

—Acts 20:35

That verse was a paradigm shift for me. It changed my view of gifts and sent me on a journey to become a gift giver, not just a gift receiver.

A Roadmap to Gift Giving

What makes a good gift? Is it something we imagine or something we ourselves would hope to receive? Perhaps good gifts have a certain monetary value or prestige attached to them. As I’ve considered such questions, a roadmap of sorts has developed in my thinking about what makes good and great gifts.

First, a good gift is one that is practical or useful but not necessarily desirable. For instance, a pair of socks is a good gift. Most of us wear socks but probably aren’t enthused about shopping for them. I know there are outliers. My wife, for instance, loves a good, woolly pair of socks. But mostly, socks are good gifts, not great. Another good gift might be school supplies for a student or job-specific gloves for a construction worker.

There are things that simply make life easier. These are good gifts.

But what makes a great gift?

Great gifts are desirable, not just useful. Great gifts are the ones we daydream about or spend the day shopping for when we have adequate time or sufficient funds. Such gifts vary from person to person, but they all have one thing in common: they’re desired in the heart of each man or woman.

I have a deep appreciation for books, bicycles, and coffee. For me, a great gift would be something related to these things. But I couldn’t buy such gifts for my wife. While she appreciates them, they’re not her thing. She prefers socks.

Good gifts and great gifts are wonderful. I hope you get both this Christmas. One unfortunate reality of both, however, is their inability to satisfy our deepest longings, our truest need. If you think about it, everything we get for Christmas is the stuff of future landfills and garage sales. They won’t last. We’ll move on to other pursuits, we’ll look to other things to satisfy us.

So, if good gifts and great gifts won’t ultimately satisfy us or last, what will?

Love.

It’s the greatest of all human needs. We long for love that stays—love that pursues us regardless of our shortcomings. We desperately want a person who will never leave us or let us down. That would be the greatest gift.

Timothy Keller said, “The only love that won’t disappoint you is one that can’t change, that can’t be lost, that is not based on the ups and downs of life or how well you live. It is something that not even death can take away from you. God’s love is the only thing like that.”

The Greatest Gift

Here’s the best news I can give you today: Christmas is precisely about that kind of love. The greatest gift of all is God’s love given to us in the person of Jesus. It’s the only gift that will never leave us or forsake us. It’s the only gift that truly keeps on giving.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

—John 3:16

Christmas is about God sending the world a precious gift, one we didn’t ask for and certainly don’t deserve. God sent love. But he didn’t send a worldly, superficial, or conditional love. In the language of Sally Lloyd-Jones, God sent a “never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.” God sent Jesus.

Jesus came for you. That’s the message of Christmas. That’s the greatest gift.

Have you received that gift? Do you desire it—desire him?