1st December 2024

Dear Friends,

Christmas:  When God Gave Knowingly!  

This year’s John Lewis advert, called “Give Knowingly”, taps into our desire for relationships where we are known and loved.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I_EFcS6x9Y

The gift giver knows exactly what the recipient needs - a pink jumper!  But the pink jumper represents a whole lot more about the gift giver’s relationship with the recipient.    

The gift giver knows that the recipient won’t initially be keen on the pink colour.  But the jumper will be more appreciated over time because, if truth be told, they do look good in pink!   

The gift giver knows that the recipient will come back to the jumper repeatedly.  They’ll grow emotionally attached to it, and that it will become a reliable wardrobe staple, worn again and again.     

The gift giver predicts the wear and tear that will come in the future, the mistakes and the clumsiness ahead and knows the jumper will withstand mishaps.  

The gift giver anticipates that, for a time, the recipient will lose interest.  So the jumper is inactive in the attic for a season.  It waits for the recipient to rediscover it and appreciate it once more.  

The gift giver seems to predict the future for the recipient, and that the pink jumper is always a constant, worn at life’s important moments.  

The John Lewis gift giver strikes me as something of a caricature of God, while the pink jumper has somethings in common with the very best Christmas present of all time - Jesus! 

Like the pink jumper, our relationship with God may well start out as something understated or something that we are reluctant about – but it makes a difference in our lives.  

We may neglect or even abandon the gift at times, but God is always waiting to be rediscovered.  

It becomes part of us, something we fall back on time and again.   

Jesus is God’s Christmas present to us - and we are the best Christmas present God could ever receive.  Jesus’s Hebrew name is Emmanuel which means “God with us”.  At Christmas God gave himself as a present to the world, in the body, mind and heart of his Son, Jesus Christ.  God wants us to accept his gift and his heart’s desire is to receive us as his Christmas present in return.  

God will never be disappointed to receive us.  He’ll never lose interest in us, no matter how flawed we are.  He’ll never abandon us in the wardrobe.  He’ll never throw us out because we are imperfect.  God knows us better than we know ourselves. He cares about us more deeply than any gift giver ever could ever do.  His love is greater than any gift could ever represent.  

Jesus is much better than the prettiest most luxurious pink jumper – even one from John Lewis, Harrods or Harvey Nichols. 

Jesus is God’s Christmas present to you.  Just know it's for you … and God who gave it to you, loves you.

This Christmas will you accept and open up your Christmas present from God and find that relationship of love, care and understanding that we are all longing for? 

Happy Christmas! 

Larissa