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There's a passage from The Imitation of Christ that my soul circles back to often:
“The prudent lover considers not the gift of the lover so much as the love of the giver.”
Think about the gifts you've received that mean the most to you. They aren't necessarily the most expensive things you own - It's probably something small, something someone picked out because they knew you. Maybe it's something your child made for you, or something your spouse gave you because it reminded them of you. It probably had no occasion - they just gave it to you on a random Tuesday. The thing itself might not be extraordinary, but the love behind it is.
That's part of why we give gifts in the first place.
We give gifts because we want to give something of ourselves to another person. We want to say, in some small way, “I know you. I love you. I thought of you.”
And perhaps that's why gift-giving can be such a beautiful reflection of God's own generosity.
St. James writes: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…”
Before we ever gave a gift to someone else, we were already receiving gifts from God. Our families. Our friends. Our talents. Our daily bread. The beauty of creation. The ability to love and to be loved.
All of it comes from a Giver who gives not because He has to, but because He is good. And then, of course, there is the greatest gift: Christ Himself.
Spooky season is coming to a close, Mariah Carey is defrosting as we speak, and we'll spend plenty of time thinking about gifts over the next few months. LettersToTheLord is a business and this is a carefully timed post, but I still think it's worth remembering that Christmas isn't ultimately about the things we give each other - it's about the love of the Giver.
The little gifts we exchange are just small reflections of something much greater: that we have a Father who gives generously, and that He has given us more than we could ever repay.
......if you are looking for beautiful Catholic gifts, though, look over here.
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