For the last two years my family have done a “secret Santa.” For anyone who thinks this is a cruel way of celebrating Christmas with young children, it’s actually a system where a group of people decide to rationalise spending on gifts at Christmas. Names are drawn at random and in “secret” and you buy a gift for an agreed value for that person. They don’t know who has bought it, and supposedly no one else knows who is buying for whom.
As you might imagine, in our family the “secret” was not so secret. The names were duly drawn so everyone knew who they were buying for. My husband takes part, but cannot quite get the hang of secret! The other problem was that, as a family, we all live quite far apart, with Chris living in Sydney. The question then arose, if people were ordering presents online, where should those parcels be delivered? What were the delivery timelines – would the gift arrive by Christmas Day? Etc etc.
This all sounds very complicated.
The greatest Christmas gift ever was not so complicated. It was no secret. The angels proclaimed it from the skies, the shepherds ran to find the baby and told everyone about the Christ child. Foreign looking wise men came to the attention of Herod as they came in search of the baby.
The gift of Jesus was simple, a baby laying in a manger come to redeem the world. He was no secret Santa, he was a gift to the whole world. There is no limit to the value of his gift of new life, paid by him on the cross.
Prayer: Christ Jesus thank you for the gift you give us. Thank you that your life was no secret. Thank you that you value us so much that you were prepared to pay the heavy price so that we might have new life through you. AMEN