A Unique Gift

    

     The art of giving is on my mind as we begin to make our lists and narrow down our choices of gifts for our loved ones. Everyone wants to give a gift that will bless the reciever. That special gift that they can't or wouldn't get for themselves or better yet the perfect gift they never even knew existed.
     How do you chose a gift? You could
pick it off a registry when such a list exists. My neice is getting married in January and I was invited to a shower last weekend. She is registered so, having barely enough time over the busy Thanksgiving Day weekend to pick up a gift, I went to one of the stores I thought she was registered at. However, when I got there her name did not come up on the registry so I was left to my own devices. Without a shower theme and only instructions that she was registered, I had no idea what to choose. I decided to go with some of the things we have in common. And chose an item  I thought we would both enjoy having.
    During the opening of the gifts, most of the items were off the registry. When I was married several decades ago, the only thing you registered for was your china and crystal patterns. I remember going to the higher end departments stores with my mom to pick out my patterns. I picked out my China pattern at sixteen so the only pattern my husband got to weigh in on was for our silver flatware. There were no scanners to run through the store and click UPC symbols of anything we thought was cool. There was no one keeping track of how many of each item were purchased to make sure you didn't get duplicates. Being registered meant, you had a China, Crystral, and Silverware pattern. Returning duplicates was a scheduled wedding event as much as the Rehearsal dinner was. It was hard to predict how much of your patterns would be completed. I remember only getting one silver spoon, a gift from my little brother, and that was the only peice I got of my silverware pattern. It was fun to receive though as was every other eloquently wrapped packaged we opened. Each gift was a complete suprise. I wondered how it felt for them to open up gifts they had previously picked out and put on the list. My neice and her fiancee laughed as they opened them up sharing stories about who put what item on the registry and what wasn't allowed on it. When she opened my gift, she said, "I registered for this one." "Well, good," I thought because I didn't have a list to shop with. Lucky guess, I guess.
     What are your favorite gifts to receive? Some of my favorite gifts to receive are those that take me completely off guard from someone who obviously spent some time thinking about the type of things I enjoy. Those gifts that are not generic but genuninely suited to you. God's gifts for us are uniquely suited to each of us individually. I remember one time when I had given a book as a gift and someone commented, "another book why doesn't that surpise me." "Oh you mean not everyone absolutely loves books!" Apparently, I like to give a lot of books!
   One of the gifts God has blessed me with is the love of writing. I have to remember that not everyone enjoys writing and reading as much as I do. I text my friends short essays and wonder why they never seem to have the time to respond with more than "k." You mean really there are people in the world that do not enjoy expressing their inner most feelings and random thoughts in a minimum of 250 words but more are better. Do people really "like" a link on facebook without clicking on it and reading the entire article? And how do  they resist the urge to express their reactions by leaving a comment of, you guessed it, at least 250 words! Why on earth would you type LOL when you could write, "I rolled on the floor, clunched my stomach until my guts ached, and laughed aloud!"
   Oh thank you Lord for making us so unique and for our special gifts and talents. Thank you for bringing us together in families and encouraging fellowship in our circles of friends. Lord, help us to practice and grow our unique talents and gifts and to share them with others often and in encouraging ways. Guard us against the temptation to use our gifts to take advantage of others or to lift up ourselves in our own glory. Help us to remember Lord that you are the gift giver and all good things in us come from you. It is you, Lord, working each of our unique gifts together that make wonderful things happen. Amen.