Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15 NAS)

Your standard man, at this point in the Christmas season, has purchased zero gifts. He has not yet gotten around to purchasing an acceptable gift for his wife for last Christmas. He did give her something last year, but he could tell by her reaction to it that she had not been dreaming of getting an auto emergency kit, even though it was the deluxe model with booster cables and an air compressor. Clearly this gift violated an important rule, but the man had no idea what this rule was, and his wife was too upset to tell him. (Dave Barry, "Your Gift Is in the Male," The Washington Post 12-12-04)

Men are notorious gift-givers. OK, that may be a misleading statement, because Dave Barry probably has us men pegged accurately. We're not all that great at buying gifts. We think we're being practical, the person for whom we bought the gift thinks we're nuts. When it comes to gift-giving, most of us men could use a little help.

Not everyone is so gift-challenged.
I remember a time when I asked my wife what she wanted for her birthday. She said, "Oh, nothing." Now, being the very logical, practical person that I am, I took her at her word. When her birthday rolled around, there was no present. Let's just say that I try not to make the same mistake any more. I read somewhere about a fellow who bought his wife a rain gauge for their anniversary. After all, being a farmer's daughter, she often kept up with the weather. His gift is now one of the family jokes, and I suspect he shops with a different purpose now-a-days. I've heard all kinds of gift stories. Some of them make you scratch your head and wonder what in the world that guy was thinking about when he bought that. Others make you smile as you realize how well-intentioned the gift was, but how far off the mark it ended up. Some get the "Oh, no!" response as you realize the gift was really what the giver himself wanted. Of course, most of these stories are tales about men's attempts at gift-giving.

Thankfully, not everyone is so gift-challenged. Plenty of wives have opened up a little black felt box and gasped at the sparkling gem inside. Or, they've opened the door and found one of those huge red bows topping a new car. Or, they opened a card to read a not-so-bad attempt at love poetry. There have been children shocked when Dad actually got them that new bicycle or the pony. Occasionally, we men can come through with a great gift.

There is One who has come through with the greatest gift of all. When God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to die for our sins and to rise from the dead to give hope of eternal life, it was the gift of all gifts. No gift-loaded Christmas tree has ever secreted a gift as loving, as desperately needed, as beautiful, or as magnificent. We may struggle to give appropriate gifts, but God has come through for us with a gift for all time, for all eternity. It's an indescribable gift!