A Word from Pastor Lisa: Unexpected Gifts
On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
–Mathew 2:11 (NRSV)
When I was four years old, I received an amazing gift the week before Christmas – a baby sister. I was so excited to play with her and care for her. Yet my mom says about two weeks later, the novelty had worn off. Turns out a tiny baby doesn’t make much of a playmate. To boot, the parental attention was now diverted from me. Frustrated, I approached my mom around the new year and asked, “Do you think we could trade her in for a dog?”
Now 36 years later, my sister has turned out to be an incredible gift in my life. She’s a wonderful teacher, mother, spouse, friend, and sister. Yet this story reminds me of how often we’re ready to exchange a gift too quickly because it doesn’t meet our qualifications. Sometimes the gift may be an actual present like a sweater that’s the wrong color. Other times the gift may be a relationship that we give up on quickly. Still other times the gift is spiritual in nature, and we abandon a church that “doesn’t meet our needs” or give up on a Savior who doesn’t meet our expectations.
When I reflect on the story of the magi in Matthew’s Gospel, I think about how much knowledge they had of astronomy, history, and geography. They saw the star of the Christ child at its rising, and they came to pay homage to the new king of the Jews. When that star finally settled over a peasant’s home in Bethlehem, they could have easily dismissed it as preposterous. This was not the likely birthplace of a king. Instead, they were able to set their usual expectations aside and discover the gift of God-with-us in their midst. When they saw the child with his mother, they knelt down, worshiped him, and offered gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Most of us are totally done with 2020. When that ball dropped at midnight, we were ready to kiss that terrible year good-bye and put all of our hope in a new one. I wonder what would happen if instead, we spent time giving thanks for and exploring unexpected gifts that the past year offered, even with all of the challenges. Perhaps you had more time at home to dig in the dirt of your garden. Perhaps you stopped taking for granted relationships with those you love. Maybe you appreciated more deeply the care and connection of your church family. Maybe you were thankful for God’s Spirit that reminded you even in your loneliest moments, you were never alone.
Of course, 2020 may still be too raw for some of us to learn from our scars, and that’s OK, too. We need to be gentle with ourselves and give each other grace as we emerge from the cocoon of this pandemic. But we also need to be careful not to put all of our hope in 2021. While a vaccine is a game-changer, it will take a while until everyone benefits. The rebuilding of our economy, our community, and our church is going to be a process. My hope is that we won’t go back to the way things were before, but that by God’s grace, we will work together to build a more just, more loving, more inclusive community for all of God’s people.
As we begin 2021, I’m not putting my hope in the new year, but in our God who makes all things new. Like the magi, I long to set my expectations aside and discover the unexpected gift of God-with-us in our midst.