Just What I've Always Wanted

The staff at St. Paul recently gathered together for our annual Christmas party. We had a great time relaxing, laughing, taking care of some business, and feasting at our hostess' banquet. Included in the celebration was a gift exchange - white elephant style, but without the "stealing". According to Wikipedia (the ultimate source for casual information), White Elephant gifts are "typically inexpensive/humorous items or used items from home, and sometimes they are just plain trash." We numbered all the gifts we brought, then chose numbers from a hat, and opened our gifts in numerical order. The gifts were mostly - if not all - delightful. And somehow they all seemed to find an appropriate recipient.

I like White Elephant Gift Exchanges. It gives me an opportunity to get rid of something that I no longer want or need (if I ever did). And, sometimes, someone's undesirable becomes a new treasure. Or, at the very least we get some laughs by passing around each other's junk.

I think God likes White Elephant gifts, too. God gets them all the time. God is constantly receiving our junk - our broken hearts, our tough situations, our hurting world, and our sinful selves. God not only receives it, God asks for it, God comes to get it in Jesus. And in God's hands, the junk has value because God loves it and makes it new.