“Dear friends in Jesus, it was a few days before Christmas, a wife woke up one morning and said, to her husband, ‘I had a dream last night in which, you gave me a diamond necklace for Christmas. What do you think it means?’
‘Oh well,’ he replied, ‘you will know it the day after tomorrow.’
The following morning she gave her husband a cup of coffee as usual and said to him, ‘You know what? I had the same dream and you gave me the same diamond necklace again. What do you make of it?’ Interesting that her husband said, ‘One more day and you will know what to make of it.’ And the third morning she woke up as usual, smiled at him and repeated the same. ‘I was surprised to have had the same dream for the third time. And I can hardly wait to see what you have for me this Christmas.’ Her husband smiled back and said, ‘A few more hours and you will see it for yourself.’ That evening, he came home early, gave her a warm hug, wished her a very happy and merry Christmas and happily gave her a beautiful package. When she curiously and gently opened it there was a small book inside titled, ‘The Meaning of Dreams.’
Dear friends in Jesus, Christmas is a time of gifts. It is a time we give gifts too and receive gifts from our family and friends. There are a couple of things we got to remember about gift giving. Number one, the best gift we can give our loved ones this Christmas is the gift of ourselves. Of course, there is nothing wrong with the giving material gifts that definitely show the love we have for our near and dear ones, but our gifts must represent not only what we have, but also what we are. They should reflect our love, our vision and our dreams for those we give our gifts to. We got to make sure that our gift is an extension of our very selves. There’s a story of a professor who paid a visit to your former student whose first child had just been born. He spent some time with the family, blessed the baby and gave the parents a gift for the baby all wrapped up in fine paper and tied with a bow. The parents, when they opened the gift, were both surprised and confused to see a book inside a very old leather-bound copy of Shakespeare’s plays. What a strange gift for a newborn baby. They thought it would take years before the baby can even read it, let alone understand it. And then it suddenly dawned on them that the gift was not the book, but the giver. The professor had given himself. He had given the child something most precious to himself, his own love of language, his admiration for Shakespeare. Yes, dear friends, the best gifts we can offer this Christmas are the gifts of ourselves and number two, our gifts should address not only the material needs of our loved ones, but also their human, social and spiritual needs. Composer and performer James Bradley, when they encountered a homeless beggar on the streets of San Francisco, he placed some money in the beggars metal cap and then went out of his way, reached out to the back door and shook his hand. The beggar gave him a big smile and the two exchanged names and small talk. Then suddenly the beggar pulled Bradley a little closer and said, Thank you for the money, but what I really needed was a handshake. Dear friends in Jesus, what is remarkable about this incident is not the material gift of money, but the gift of human dignity and the love of Christ that Bradley James gave the beggar through the handshake and his fraternal presence.
In today’s Gospel, we see mother Mary giving the gift of herself to Elizabeth, her cousin. As soon as she comes to know of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, she steps out in haste, as the Bible would say, make a four day long journey and reaches Elizabeth. She goes there not to give Elizabeth some material gifts, but the gift of herself at a time when Elizabeth’s husband, Zechariah was struck dumb due to his unbelief Mary’s presence there was really a blessing to Elizabeth. Besides giving herself, Mary also gave. Mary also gives the gift of joy to Elizabeth and the gift of the Holy Spirit to John who is in Elizabeth’s womb. Her gifts not only address the material needs of Elizabeth’s family, but also their social and spiritual needs. When Elizabeth thought, she would be looked down upon and made fun of for her old age pregnancy, Mary’s gift of presence not only made Elizabeth feel accepted, but also filled her with the joy she needed. Dear friends in Jesus, this is how our gift giving and sharing are to be in this holy season, not just a material, but also spiritual. Another very important thing we got to remember in this holy season is to give a gift to Jesus Christ on his birthday. What do you want to give him on his birthday? King David makes a suggestion in Psalm 51:8 when he says, ‘a heart, humble, contrite and sincere is what pleases God. Make sure you’re giving him your heart on his birthday. And our prayer today is Lord, help us share not only material gifts in this holy season, but also spiritual gifts of presence, acceptance, faith, hope, love and joy, amen.”