How much time do we spend on Christmas shopping, choosing just the right gift, going from store to store, week to week? What if we spent that same amount of time with the person, getting to know each other, giving our life-stuff to him and her?
How would the world change?
What if we counted not things but giving? How could it be good to spend time with people?
What if we asked them? What if we gave our selves? What if spent—our very beings—on them? What if we learned what is on their hearts and heard them?
That of course is something I can do with Nathan today. I can learn what is his favorite thing, the most surprising thing, the happiest thing.
What if Christmas were family time? What if it were about loving people, not showering them with things they may or may not want or even like? What if we made gifts of what is most precious, as we mouth words about G*d giving a baby?
This is not to say Do not give gifts. Rather, give the larger gift.
It is not something we have to do in a radical way. We can sit with one other person and hear them. Today. Christmas day then is any day.
:- Doug.