My office has been overtaken by my Christmas wrapping station. My son arrives later today and I wanted to keep the main floor uncluttered, so my office was the logical place.

A large table sits in the center of the room. There are tubes of wrapping paper, tissue paper, and boxes. A large tub holds bows of every color. And who could forget the name tags, pen, scissors, and tape? It’s all here.

I won’t be the only person to use this wrapping station. My husband, daughter and my son will all benefit from this localized organization. You see, I do it for them (ha, ha).

I wrote a piece two years ago that I’d like to share with you about gift wrapping. Enjoy!

Christmas Wrapping

I’ll admit it; I have a problem with Christmas wrapping paper. My children believe that is one thing they will receive when I’m gone. My stash of Christmas wrap.

I have tubs of paper. Some still in the original packaging. I’ve been known to sneak rolls of the stuff into my house and hide them from my family. I definitely have a problem.

I must also admit yet another problem. Each person in my family has a special color or theme for all of their Christmas gifts. So I’m always on the lookout for that special wrapping paper for that special person.

This is how it goes. My son’s gifts are wrapped in snowman paper. One daughter gets purple and one daughter gets blue. My son-in-law gets wrapping paper with “joy” on it. My husband Mason receives his packages in my favorite wrapping paper of the year.

For the grandkids, they get wrapping paper with Santa on it. My granddaughter gets red. My grandson’s favorite color is orange, so from the beginning I thought orange wrap with Santa was for him…yeah, that was a bad idea. There’s none out there. So I create my own. Solid orange wrapping paper with Santa stickers.

With another grandchild on the way, I’ll have to come up with yet another color combination! Maybe my method will go out the window next Christmas!

I read a question yesterday that piqued my interest. Who wrapped the first Christmas gift?

If you are like me, your first thought went to Mary. We read in Luke 2:7 (NIV), “She gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

But then I read another answer to the question. God wrapped the first Christmas gift. In the midst of the angel appearance, Mary was told “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the son of God.” (Luke 1:35 – NIV)

God wrapped His Gift in the womb of this young woman. Oh, I love the picture of Mary wrapping the infant Jesus in swaddling clothes. It touches my “mother’s heart” more than a Hallmark movie.

But how much more I love the picture of God lovingly gift-wrapping His precious Son for all of mankind to receive.

I must admit I can get caught up in the gift giving and wrapping of those gifts. I must continue to remind myself to focus on the Gift that was wrapped in a special package and was given so long ago.

Dr. Seuss may have recognized this fact and stated so in his children’s story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Grinch believed that if all evidence of Christmas was removed from Whoville, Christmas would not come. So the Grinch took it all away. But Christmas came in the same manner it had year after year…without the trappings of Christmas commercialization.

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”[i]

Yes, Christmas does mean more than packages and bows. It means that God loved us so much that He was willing to share His precious Son with the world, because we needed a Savior.

It’s not too late to keep our thoughts and hearts on God’s Gift as we celebrate Christmas this year. No earthly gift could be as beautiful as the Gift God wrapped up for us on that first Christmas. I believe it’s time to unwrap our Gift!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Donna

[i] How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Dr. Seuss, Random House , 1957.