On New Year’s Eve, Vicki and I were invited to join with several friends for some good food, fellowship, and fun. The food was delicious, the fellowship was delightful, and the fun…well, it was unique.
One of the most exciting activities was the White Elephant Gift exchange. In a White Elephant Gift Exchange, everyone brings a gift and yet the goal is usually to entertain rather than to gain anything meaningful.
The gifts can be funny, weird, or nice. Funny gifts make the biggest splash at the party, but aren’t always that desirable. The weird gifts are often artsy things and gadgets that aren’t really that useful, but some people want them anyway. And then the nicer gifts are highly sought after.
Our exchange began with all 22 of the guests sitting in a circle. The facilitator of the exchange then began by playing some music at which time everyone began passing their gifts around the circle. When the music stopped, the facilitator would call out a number and then that person would open their gift. After the first gift was opened, the music began and everyone passed gifts again until the music stopped and another number was called. But then after the first gift was opened, from then on, before the next person would open their gift, they had a choice if they wanted to take someone else’s gift.
The gifts ranged from a miniature outhouse, to a dancing chicken, to a toilet plunger that looked like a BB gun. Then there was the cute little slinky wiener dog, the large size frog made out of wire and covered in green lights, the candle with candy bars, a very nice desk lamp, a pair of men’s gloves, and a piggy bank with $12.76 in it. And then last but not least, everyone had a good laugh when the person opened the little ceramic man who was bent over with his pants pulled down and when you turned him on he would fart little bubbles.
As you can imagine, everyone enjoyed a great deal of laughter as well as some interesting conversation around the opening and exchange of gifts. The White Elephant Gift exchange was indeed a hit.
As I was reflecting on the experience, I wondered if for some people, Christmas is like a White Elephant Gift Exchange. God sends his Son into the world as a gift to all people. People open Him up; some find Jesus to be funny—his humble, selfless way of life and his claim to be the only way to the Father—how funny.
And then some find Jesus weird, what do you mean “don’t worry about what you eat or what you wear.” What do you mean “bless those who persecute you,” and “don’t turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you,” that’s weird. While yet others find Jesus to be like a very generous gift card; he’s just enough to pay my sin debt.
I believe for many people, Jesus is like a White Elephant Gift, he provides good entertainment and is worthy of an interesting conversation. Jesus is good enough to take home after the party and yet they stick him in a closet until next year when they can re-gift him at the next exchange.
So what do you think? How valuable of a gift is Jesus to you? And who is Jesus to you; do you find him to be interesting, weird, nice, but not really that meaningful? Is Jesus someone who could be traded for a better opportunity?
May it not be so with us, but rather like Paul in II Corinthians 9:15 may we declare, “Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!”
Speechless,
Mike Altena