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Every year since my wife and I have known each other, we have given Christmas gifts to one another!
Wait. That isn't entirely true ... There was that one year where we decided between us to not give each other a Christmas present!
The year was 2009. In June of that year, my wife and I had celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. We hadn't given each other gifts then, either. Rather, I had promised my wife that we would take a special 25th anniversary second honeymoon!
Since the I was a school teacher and couldn't leave at just any time of the year, the most logical time for this second honeymoon seemed to be during my Christmas break. My wife was all for the idea. She only had one stipulation: Since it would be winter time, she wanted to go some place warm!
No problem there! That was my desire as well!
We spent a little time discussing where we would go, but then I abruptly closed the conversation. Whenever she would ask where we would go, I would get a little twinkle in my eye and say, "You'll see!"
I will confess that I actually planned two honeymoon trips that year...
You see, it didn't take me long to decide on the perfect honeymoon destination: Tahiti! Neither of us had ever been there, it was on my bucket list, and even though I'd never heard my wife talk about wanting to go to Tahiti, I was sure she would love it there! I mean, really, who wouldn't want to go to Tahiti! She would be delighted!
And so I set out with my clandestine plans, and it wasn't long before I had crafted a two-week trip. Each day that I planned brought more and more excitement to my spirit. The palm-lined, pristine beaches, the exquisite fruit, the romantic lodgings... The trip I planned would put a look of delight on any woman's face!
Unfortunately for me, the subject of Tahiti did come up once while I was doing the planning. We were driving home from a short camping trip, and my son started talking about wanting to go to Tahiti. I looked up with a ready smile on my face, just waiting to see the light that I knew would soon be dancing through my wife's eyes at the very thought ... But I was doom for disappointment. "Why would you want to go there?" she asked. "Nothing to do but sit on the beach! I hear the flies on the beach can cause illness, you have to sleep under mosquito nets, and you have to be very careful to not eat too much fruit or you'll be sick!"
Warning bells began tolling in my head, but I dismissed them. She was speaking out of ignorance. She hadn't done the fabulous research I had been doing!
And so I continued with my plans until I had honed the trip to perfection. I had reserved our lodgings -- only the best for my bride of 25 years! -- and I was getting ready to book the flights when God started niggling at my conscience: "Is this a gift for your wife? Or for yourself?"
The answer was easy. "For her! Of course!"
Yet I could almost see God's eyebrows raise, assuming of course that God even has eyebrows! "Okay!" I gave in. "Maybe it's a little for me, too. But that's okay, isn't it? I mean, the trip is for both of us!"
It took God some days to get through to me, but eventually I realized something horrible: I was crafting something that I would like, but not something she would particularly like! Not that my wife is particularly picky; but she isn't the beachy type. She much prefers climbing mountains, and, well, people do go to Tahiti for the beaches... And no matter how I spun it, I now saw the truth: I had just spent months planning a purely selfish trip!
I reluctantly put the trip aside and began anew, this time to a destination that I had heard her mention she would very much like to visit: New Zealand!
In the end, we had a lovely two weeks down in New Zealand, and we left wishing we could stay three times as long. No, we didn't give each other Christmas gifts, but the love we had shared for those 25 years just shown in her eyes, and that was all the Christmas present I needed. I spent the entire two weeks thanking God for stopping me from booking the Tahiti flights! What was important was the self-less gift that God had pushed me to give, the gift that made her so ultimately happy,
There was another Christmas where a great, self-less gift was given: "But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law..." (Galatians 4:4 NIV).
If you've never received God's Christmas gift to you, why not do it today? You can do so by clicking here!
If you already know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, I challenge you to spend some time thinking about the enormity of this self-less gift. And then why not see who is on your own gift list that you could give a purely self-less gift to!
Inspired by Rob Chaffart
Founder, Answers2Prayer Ministries
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