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By Jean Mackay Vinson
Guest Columnist

Around Christmas, our ‘to-go’ lists pile high – what to buy, what to cook, which cards to write. Traffic is frenzied; people lined up in stores with full carts. We are always on the hunt for the perfect gift for that special person.

Maybe you are familiar with a phrase that has been popular through the decades: The Gift that

Keeps on Giving. It’s used in commercials to continually invoke the feelings one gets upon receipt of a present. Advertisers know its power. Numerous businesses have used this phrase in different ways in the past. In 2016, Godiva, the chocolatier came up with a catchy spin on the slogan: “The Box that Keeps on Giving.” Going back a bit further to 1977, Kodak ran ads for their Instamatic Camera: “The gift that keeps on giving picture after picture.”

The “gift that keeps on giving” then, is a recipe for the ideal gift. It is certainly not ‘a one and done’ but the gift … gives … over and over.

In this Christmas season with the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, shepherds receive a sign from

angels. The angels said, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those

whom He favors!” The shepherds went to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger. The shepherds told Mary and Joseph all that they had been told by the angels … and Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2)

Mary not only held Jesus in her arms but pondered (likely for many years afterward) his significance not only for her as a mother, but for the entire world.

When we receive a gift like this – a gift that opens in our hearts, it is something that reaches us

Deeply. Many Christians have come to believe, not only by unwrapping the story but by thinking about it … pondering it … in their hearts – their bodies, minds, spirits and souls using the Scripture, faith and reason together – until a light glows. This light grows into belief and then belief opens this gift. This gift to be pondered in our hearts. And when we do this … the gift that keeps on giving, it unwraps US.

Yes, this gift unwraps us! We might wonder as we pull away the wrapping paper what it is. We may be a bit in the darkness. Then we feel it take shape inside of us. Sometimes we don’t really

understand the gift’s power to give … until later in our spiritual journeys.

The other aspect of the gift that keeps on giving is that this gift is BORN IN US. Scripture tells us

Mary and Joseph knew the significance of the child from the angels. Still, there was much

unexpected. Some gifts are like that. They are unexpected until they are born in us. Howard

Thurman writes “Christmas is waiting to be born: in you, in me, and all humankind.”

On Christmas Eve, many of us will sing together Silent Night. On this holy night, the gift – born in us – will continue to keep on giving as it become the full knowing of Jesus, Lord at thy birth. And we will sing the truth that this is the dawn of redeeming grace – Christ, the Savior, is born.

The Christ Child is the Ultimate gift that keeps on giving … Will you receive Him?

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, will you ponder Him in your heart?

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, will you let Him unwrap you tonight?

REV. JEAN VINSON is the rector at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Franklin.