Unexpected Gifts

Many gifts will be given this season. Some will be beautifully wrapped, some will be expensive and some will be hand-made. There will be big gifts and little gifts, toys and trinkets, gadgets and gizmos and everything in between. For many of us, there really won’t be too many surprises this Christmas season. We’ve been through it all before, and many times.

And while we will open our gifts with a smile plastered on our face, we don’t anticipate being greatly surprised. There will be the obligatory clothing items, the gag gifts, the cute hand-made trinket from the kids and the gift we really wanted that we told them to get for us. We don’t anticipate anything will be out of the ordinary and we have already decided in our hearts that our true enjoyment will come from watching the littlest ones open their gifts.

But every once in a while, we are surprised by an unexpected gift. You know the gift I’m talking about, it comes from a loved one and it comes out of left field. We didn’t specify the make and model and it doesn’t conform to the standard gift giving routine. But this gift really knocks it out of the park! As we open it, we realize the time and thought that went into the selection of the gift and we feel so appreciated and loved.

Unexpected gifts have a way of doing that to us. They interrupt the routine for a moment and remind us that we can be surprised after all, no matter how jaded we are. That’s why unexpected gifts are often the best of all. It’s not about the wrapping and it’s not about the size of the gift—instead it is about the insight and creativity of the giver.

These days even the story of that first Christmas has become so routine—so frequently recounted through nativity scenes, stories and Christmas plays—that we forget how truly unexpected it was. God’s grand plan for the salvation of the world came wrapped in very inauspicious packaging and in a size impossibly small and fragile. And yet, it was the best gift of all.

This Christmas, I pray that you would be surprised by God in an unexpected way. I pray that His presence would surprise you and your family on Christmas morning and that you would rediscover how much insight, creativity and love He has for you.

We have placed a Christmas devotional for you and your family to enjoy on Christmas morning on our website at kcfchurch.org. On behalf of all the pastors in Kings County, Merry Christmas!