Originally written December 18, 2017, I found this so worthy of sharing because when I originally wrote it I locked it without sharing it.

Sunday evening I got a revelation on something that I did that I needed to share because it is applicable to what is happening all over the world…

Last week, as I tried to find something (anything in my budget) that I thought my husband would like for a gift (he was not easy to shop for at all), I found it really difficult to shop for him because there is nothing that he really “needs” that I could wrap in tissue paper and put in a bag.

So the challenge was to find something that he would like enough to use that would not just take up space on a shelf, something that he didn’t know he needed until I created that need by gifting him with that item. (Whew, I am learning something from my marketing and advertising classes about creating consumer need lol).

What I found, as I tried to think of what to gift him, that “he” would like, is that I rejected many choices because everything that I looked at was something that ” I ” would like. I had to ask myself, ” who am I purchasing a gift for?” “Is this really something that he would like, or is this something that I want him to like “. There is a difference. (I think this is what led to my splurging on me.)

Think about it. We like to say “its the thought that counts” which is code for “thank you, I appreciate your thought of me, but I really didn’t need that, or I really don’t like that, but I will smile, and say thank you because I appreciate your effort. The fact that you thought of me is what really counts.” Now thankfully I didn’t get that response on all of the gifts… Lol but…

This happens a lot during this time of year during the season of gift giving. It has happened so much for people over the years that I realize that is why I’m overhearing so many comments from different people that they are not into doing a lot of gift giving this year… Or… On the opposite end of the totem pole are those who over spend because they really can’t figure out what to give as a gift. Not realizing that they are caught up in a spending frenzy, they see one thing buy it then later think of something that is needed and buy it. ” But wait this person might like this so let me buy it ” and next thing you know they have overspent for the holiday season. (I tasted a little of that. Tried it, and its not for me.)

We are now in the season that we like to say that Jesus is the reason for. A season that we like to claim is Jesus birthday but… Now catch this… Not one gift purchased is for the birthday boy. Not one gift bought is for Jesus. Why is that? Why is so much overspending being done ( or any spending being done) on someone whose birthday it is not? How would my husband have felt on his birthday if everything I purchased was for me?

As I snuck out the house on Sunday to finish up the final purchases for my husband, I considered these things realizing that what I was tasting was that spending frenzy too. I was literally talking to God about these very things as I drove to get my husband a mini cake. The big question was “why?” on everything, not in reference to my husband, but in reference to me.

Why? The gifts for him.
Why? The decorations.
Why? The gifts for me…though I really like what I bought for me and can’t wait to get my second 📦 package – but it wasn’t my birthday, so “why?” when nothing I purchased was because there was a need.

Now none of this conversation that I had was about my husband’s birthday that has now passed so i feel free to share this … He enjoyed his day. I’m so glad he did.

But I can’t ignore this that I reflected on in reference to Jesus whose birthday everyone is supposedly preparing for. All of these questions of why, even as i, this year, did what many do all the time, was because God was using it all to show me something and teach me something.

1. What do you get a person who doesn’t need anything? (This question arises when you really consider the person and the personality of whom you are planning for.) When you are really giving thought to the person you are planning to gift it shows in the gift you bring?

Oh Glory be to God! This was the difference between Abel’s gift and Cain’s gift. The difference between really giving thought to the person you are gifting and just giving aby type gift for the sake of being able to say you gave.

2. If you are purchasing a want instead of a need, whose want are you purchasing for – yours or theirs? (This comes up when you ask a person what do they want and they tell you nothing. You then attempt to guesstimate what to get as you try to interpret what “nothing” really means.) If you take a person saying nothing seriously and get them nothing then you failed to recognize that they really did want something. They wanted you to think of them. They wanted you to gift them from your heart. They wanted a piece of your heart.

O wow!
What do you give to the one who has no need.
Your heart.

Oh wow!
I feel as if I get it as to why God would ask of us to be whole souled, whole minded, and whole hearted in our worship. How when we come before God we are to give our whole heart, mind, and soul to HIM.

I mentioned that these are things that I thought of Sunday evening because it didn’t escape my notice that my husband spent money on me Sunday. He absolutely had no clue that I had bought gifts and had employed my son to decorate while we were gone. But while we were out he took me to see the winter wonderland lights. It wasn’t in budget. It wasn’t even a big deal for him. He did it for me. He gifted me on his birthday. You can’t tell me there wasn’t a lesson in that for me who said I wanted fresh manna every day.

As I look back over his day, which I am so glad that he enjoyed, I now consider that which I was being shown.

Again, “what do you give to a person who has everything they need?” I found that where it was so hard to shop for him it was very easy to shop for me – to gift myself. I say it over and over because I am hearing how SELFish that sounds. Yet, this is the spirit of this season. To purchase a gift for Self instead of for the person whose birthday it is claimed to be.

I had to experience this so that I can see it. You see, we say with our mouths that Jesus is real but do we believe this with our hearts?

Black Friday and cyber Monday when everything goes on sale, who are you purchasing for? The sales in the various stores is called a Christmas sale. Christmas referring to the birth of Christ even though mas means death. Yet for the birthday celebration of Christ Jesus, not one thought or consideration is given to what to give HIM. Why?

Yet on what is considered to be his birthday, knowing in his heart that he probably won’t get a gift, he gifts us with a gift that was expensive in cost. He died so we can live.