Christmas 'quid pro quo'

A generous man will himself be blessed (Proverbs 22:9).

With Christmas coming up, we are urged to be generous in our giving.  But how often is our generosity tainted by selfishness?

You spend a lot of time or money getting a special gift.  You wait eagerly to see it opened.  Yet when the package is unwrapped, the recipient doesn’t light up with joy, doesn’t grab you in a grateful hug.  All you get is a mumbled ‘thanks’ as the opened box is laid to the side.  Do you feel angry and unappreciated?

You are exchanging gifts around the tree.  You made sure that everyone received several nice presents.  Yet when the last box has been opened, you only got a couple of gifts, and nothing that tickled your fancy.  Do you feel disappointed and shortchanged?

When we give, we usually want to be compensated in some way.  If you give your sweetie a present, you expect a gift in return, something that costs about the same as what you spent or demonstrates a similar amount of careful thought.  If you donate your time and energy to some event, you expect to be recognized and praised.  Although Christmas is supposed to be about generosity, our behavior is often governed by the principle of qid pro quo: I give to you and you give to me. 

When it comes to the first Christmas gift, there was no quid pro quo, no expectation of repayment.  The Son of God stepped into our dark and evil world as a man.  But Jesus was not just any man—He was the Messiah, the one sent by God to end sin’s tyranny over us.  The Christ of God would take responsibility for everything dark and terrible that the human race has dreamed up throughout the centuries; burdened with our crimes, He would suffer God’s punishment that, by rights, should be inflicted on us.  The Savior did this with no expectation of repayment. He knew that many would not appreciate His sacrifice.  He knew that those who were grateful could never pay Him back for the tremendous gift His suffering paid for—complete forgiveness and eternal life in God’s magnificent kingdom.  Yet although He would never get the kind of response He deserved from us, Jesus gave His life as a gift anyway—that is true generosity. I hope you bear that in mind when you are making plans for your gift giving.