Wrapping Up Love

As I mentioned in a previous post, our eight-year-old son’s gift list has remained short. “I really don’t want much for Christmas,” he announced. “All I want for Christmas is an art kit … and love.” “An art kit should be pretty easy to wrap,” I said, “but how will I wrap up a box of love?” Some gifts cannot be easily wrapped. nAncY reminded us of this at the beginning of Advent:

as we look upon the importance of giving, in this season of remembering God’s most wonderful gift to us, we can think about how God’s Love speaks to our own need and the need of others. the first and most awesome need is to have Jesus come into our heart and life, and within that we need to feed our selves in the word and in fellowship and relationship through Him. gifts we are each given gifts according to God’s grace in Love... there are many gifts that can not be wrapped and put under a tree. yet, these are also gifts that shine through, every day, in Love. the Holy Spirit can speak the name of Jesus, through the sharing of these gifts. you are a child of God, and you hold special gifts. share them, in Love.

Like nAncY pointed out, there are many gifts that can’t be wrapped and put under the tree. I originally thought the love that my son requested would be one of them. But a few days after he revealed his wish list, I was tucking him into bed. He rolled onto his side and explained, “I know how we can wrap up love. You can get heart-shaped stuff like pillows and candy and put it all in a box. Then you can wrap up a box of love!” Well ... I could try. But do you know how hard it is to find heart-shaped items in the midst of snowflakes, snowmen, Santas and poinsettias? I looked at Goodwill, where I turned up a picture frame with hearts on it. Nothing in the shape of a heart jumped out at me in Target. Monday I walked into a local CVS. On a shelf next to the marshmallow Santas and chocolate-covered cherries was a Valentine’s candy display. February seems a long way off, but I didn’t criticize. Instead, I gratefully snatched up a huge heart-shaped lollipop, a chocolate heart, and a bag of juju hearts.

We’re wrapping up some love this year. It occurred to me as I was reviewing Luke 2 that Mary managed to find a way to wrap up some love, too, when she brought forth her firstborn Son. She wrapped Love in swaddling cloths. Love was temporarily contained, but not for long. He would have left behind those cloths as He grew. Much later He would be wrapped in more cloth, temporarily contained ... but not for long. That cloth, too, He left behind. Because Love cannot be—and is not meant to be—contained.

Post by Ann Kroeker of annkroeker.com and notsofastbook.com. Photo by Ann Voskamp. Used with permission.