Are we done yet? Are we weary from thinking about making Christmas-gift lists, shopping for gifts, paying for gifts, wrapping gifts, and, lately, exchanging or returning gifts?
We know gifts are means of giving of ourselves to people whom we love and cherish, but we don’t always find the exact gifts we want to give or receive the gifts we have been desiring. In this “material” world, we can easily get misdirected and distracted. Usually we are grateful for the well-intentioned gifts others give us and are reminded at the time of the good feelings we share.
Before the feast of the Nativity, we heard of various gifts: Mary’s accepting the gift of being the mother of Jesus, her visit to Elizabeth, and the dream Joseph was given telling him to take Mary into his home. John the Baptist was gifted with the chance to share the good news of the coming Messiah. Yesterday, we heard of the gifts the magi brought to Jesus. Mary was given the gifts of wonderful memories to treasure in her beautiful young heart.
We are surrounded by gifts from God. This year ahead could be a good time to heighten our awareness of our numerous blessings that don’t come wrapped in fancy holiday paper. Available to us are the gift of awareness of God, the joy of receiving Jesus’ Body in the Holy Eucharist, the wonderful, inspiring words of Sacred Scripture, the Communion of Saints that prays for us, the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, to name just a few.
The beautiful and poetic Psalm 104 can help us acknowledge other gifts. Not only can we read the various verses, but we can easily meditate and personalize them. The psalm mentions the great things of nature: waters, mountains, clouds, trees, creatures. We can interject our experiences of nature for which we are so grateful. Verse 33 reads:
I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.
And we can follow the suggestion of the first two verses of today’s Mass responsorial psalm (Psalm 29: 1-2) and give heartfelt gifts of praise and glory:
Give to the Lord, you sons of God,
give to the Lord glory and praise,
Give to the Lord the glory due his name;
adore the Lord in holy attire.
It is so easy to take for granted the God-given gifts we encounter every day. Those resolutions we often make at the beginning of the new year are easily broken or forgotten, but we do have the gift of prayerfulness so that we can ask Jesus to strengthen our resolve to draw closer to him day by day. Happy new love!
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Photograph by Image Creator from Designer.
The scripture passages are from The New American Bible, New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Sharon Krause is a RENEW volunteer whose writing has appeared in several resources for small-group faith sharing. She is a wife, mother, and grandmother residing in Royal Palm Beach, Florida, Connecticut. Over the years, she has served in many parish ministries.