There’s little to compare to the excitement of a child waiting to dive into the treasure trove of parcels under a tree. Or, of an adult whose carefully disciplined emotions didn’t quite reach the pupils of his or her eyes. Whether dancing with pleasure or rubbing one’s hands in anticipation, removing the barrier between the recipient and the gift is anything but dull. At least it shouldn’t be.
If your family is like ours, you’ve established some traditions regarding this important phase of Christmas celebrations: Who passes out the presents? When does the unwrapping begin? Where does the first gift come from i.e. back of the tree or? Why that order? What happens next?
What happens next can range from delighted surprise to sometimes ill-concealed disappointment, or anything in between. You see, it’s not even so much how the parcel or envelope is wrapped, it’s what is inside that matters. That less-than-beautifully enfolded box could well contain a long hoped for treasure while conversely, a magnificently swathed gift might hold something of no value to the recipient. As lovely or as tacky as it may be, the outside wrapping of any gift is no guarantee of its value or lack of it.
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to that concept. The manner in which we judge the skin a person comes it too often prejudices our reaction to them. Unlike those brightly coloured parcels stashed beneath a tree, it’s far too easy to dismiss someone or someone’s talents simply because of how they appear on the outside. God doesn’t.
“For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)
Who knows what treasures lie inside the person we only see as wrapped in less than our criteria?
