Who Is On Your Christmas Gift List this Year

The stuff management industry is one of the fastest growing businesses in America today. In the past year, the number of self-storage units jumped 31% according to MiniCo 2004 Self-Storage Almanac. The USA has more than 13 million units, one for every 8 households. "Americans are buying more, and I'm glad we are," says Nancy Gunning, of the Self-Storage Association.

The Container Store chain expects sales of $335 million dollars this year, up 40% from two years ago. Unlike most retailers, the chain does more business in January than in December as people rush to buy bins, shelving, hooks, and other gadgets to store all of their Christmas presents.

A generation ago a closet was two feet deep and three to four feet wide with one rail and a shelf. Now customers desire bigger and better closets. USA Today quotes that one upscale home builder who said: "In some larger closets, we have even done center islands like you'd find in the kitchen with cabinetry and drawers underneath and a countertop for folding."

Quoting New York designer Eric Cohler, the USA Today article goes on to say: "Closets are the final frontier when it comes to spaces in your house. We Americans have decorated everything else." Cohler tricked out a recent show house with a closet so elaborate, it even included a wet bar. He has designed closets that include desks, dog beds, sewing machines, and exercise equipment. One client requested a beauty parlor complete with hairdryer and swivel chair. Designers also field requests for toy or sports closets.

Is there anyone on your Christmas gift list that you are struggling to find something that they don't already have? Advertisers will frequently caption their ads: "For the man who has everything." The issue, of course, is why would we buy more stuff for the man who has everything?

How much do we really need? How many "My Little Ponies" or "Barbies" does a little girl need? How many CDs or Play Station II games does a child or teen need? How many Pottery Barn home furnishings are enough? How many power tools, gadgets, accessories for your IPOD, or Brighton Jewelry will be sufficient this year?

God suggests an interesting way to celebrate holidays. In the Old Testament, it wasn't simply one's immediate family, or close friends who made up one's holiday gift list. When the Jews celebrated Purim (the commemoration of their victory over evil Haman, the enemy of all the Jews), we read these words:

He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

In celebrating the Festival of Weeks, God gave this instruction in Deuteronomy 16.11,

And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name-you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you.

And in celebrating the Festival of Tabernacles, we read this command in Deuteronomy 16.14,

Be joyful at your Feast-you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.

Along with loved ones and close friends, are the poor on your Christmas list this year? Here are some ideas:

1. What if this year you made a decision that however much you spent on your loved ones and friends for Christmas presents, you would give an equivalent amount away to the poor? Some of that amount might be by way of a cash donation in our poor boxes, or furniture, clothing and toys to the Salvation Army. Each year our congregation involves itself in three Christmas programs. One is called "Mission Merry Christmas," which is a program to bless people in our church family with gifts and food who are unable to afford Christmas. The other program is "Samaritan's Purse," which fills shoe boxes with toys, toiletries, and small presents for children in other countries. Through International Friendships, you could contact Sara Nauman here at the church and offer to invite an international student to share Christmas Dinner with you. You can get more information about these programs at Vineyard's Information Counter.

2. Is the Lord on your Christmas Gift List? Proverbs 3.9 says,

   Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops.

   Instead of loading down each other with more cans of caramel popcorn, or Christmas candy, or another tie or sweater, why not give more generously to God's work, to world missions, or to the building of Vineyard's Community Center this year?

3. Are you on your Christmas Gift List? God is the ultimate giver. Christmas is the celebration of God's gift of the Christ-child. What gifts might God want to give you this Christmas: Perhaps God wants to give you the gift of forgiveness so that the dark clouds of guilt that hang over your life because of yesterday's sins might be completely evaporated, blown away as far as the east is from the west. Or perhaps God wants to take away your anxiety and give you a gift of "peace which passes all understanding." Perhaps God wants to give you strength to face the trials in life that you are currently enduring or the gift of contentment so that you could learn the secret of "being content whatever the circumstances" (Phil. 4.11). Perhaps, best of all, God may want to replace the busyness, money, material goods and achievement that can never be your spiritual center and instead give you the gift of himself.

   Who is on your Christmas Gift List this year? Are the poor? Is the Lord? Are you on your Christmas Gift List?