The Most Important Gifts

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

—Luke 2:19

During Christmas, God’s presence is more palpable than any other time of the year. What we’ve lost is also more present to us; the pain or the loneliness or the fear are more present than at any other time. It’s a glorious, beautiful time and also one in which even the smallest kindnesses can transform us.

If what it takes for you this year to be present in this sacred place, to feel the breath and presence of a Holy God, is to forgo the homemade cookies and the perfect decorations and the cards and the rushing and the lists, then we’ll be all right with cookies from the store and a few less gifts. It would be a great loss for you to miss this season, the soul of it, because you’re too busy pushing and rushing. And it would be a great loss if the people in your life receive your perfectly wrapped gifts, but not your love or your full attention or your spirit.

My prayer for us is that we would give and receive the most important gifts this season—the palpable presence of a Holy God, the kindness of well-chosen words, the generosity of spirit and soul.