A Theology of Gift Giving

On Christmas day people all over the world will be exchanging presents.

There are two reasons for this:

It’s a cultural tradition within the human family.

It’s a symbolic picture of the Gospel within the Christian family.

Christmas is part of cultural tradition

It is not unusual for “cultural tradition” to be devoid of intentional, sustaining, and maybe even joy-filled relationships.

That’s not necessarily bad. There are a lot of things that I do culturally that are not motivated by or sustained by the idea or hope that I’m going to have a genuine relationship with someone.

You can’t build deeply with everyone, even though you can be nice to everyone. Sometimes traditional gift-giving is a way to honor one’s cultural tradition, even though the extent of your relationship with that person may only be wrapped up in the gift you give.

For example, it could be a formal carryover from their childhood experience. “It’s Christmas. We buy gifts. That’s what we do.”

Who knows? Maybe God will open a greater door in the future by your obedience to their cultural tradition. Paul certainly saw some wisdom in this kind of thinking:

Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. – 1 Corinthians 8:13 (ESV)

Cultural gift-giving is not all bad. I want my children to enjoy their cultural Christmas experience with family and friends. However, I also want them to understand and enjoy the deeper and richer meaning of Christmas too.

It can be a challenge to communicate the deeper and richer meaning of Christmas when their little hearts are wrapped up in the idea of presents. I was the same way when I was a child.  Keep Reading >>>