No returns, no exchanges
December 28, 2018
After a very hectic four weeks, Christmas has now come and gone. I saw my first ‘after Christmas sale’ commercial at about 12:30 on Christmas Day. Most people who work in retail say that the day after Christmas is actually worse than Christmas Eve. That’s because December 26 is return and exchange day. All the people who were unsatisfied with their gifts return them to get what they really wanted, only without whatever Christmas spirit may have existed before Christmas. We all have people on our Christmas shopping list who are really hard to buy for. It may not be that we are bad gift givers. Some people are just tough. We always include the gift receipt for those people.
There is only One perfect gift giver; only One who knows exactly what we need, and that is God. James 1:17 says, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” God knows everything we NEED and He graciously provides it. He doesn’t always give us everything we want though. What are the things we need? We NEED a savior to save us from our sin. We need air to breathe, food to eat and water to drink. God provides all of these. The things we WANT are new cars, houses, jobs, clothes and many other material things. These things are not bad, but most times they are not NEEDS.
I have never worked in retail. I just don’t have the patience for it, and as Clint Eastwood famously said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” If you went to just about any store this week, from Macy’s to Walmart, you would see a long line of people impatiently waiting to make their exchange or return to get what they really wanted. This is what earthly return/exchange lines are like. I feel so bad for those people who have to listen to the complaints of angry shoppers. I would like to work on the return/exchange line in heaven. There would never be a single person on that line. No one would ever be unhappy with the gift that God had given them. How could anyone be unhappy with the gift of Jesus Christ and the eternal life that belief in Him provides.
Our problem is that we are so focused on the material things of life, the temporal things of life, the things that don’t last, and the things that have no eternal value, that we often don’t spend any time focusing on the things that have eternal value. Paul put it like this: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything is worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you all.”
Paul wanted his readers to dwell on things of eternal significance, not the things of the world that are passing away. If we dwell on things we did not get for Christmas, we might be disappointed. Maybe there was something we really wanted, but I doubt if it was something we really needed. God has already given us everything we need. Whatever material gifts we receive from others are gravy, mere tokens of that person’s love for us, that will provide us with some temporary pleasure. When I think about the amount of money we spent on our kids on Christmases long past; toys, video games, board games, clothes, and whatever else; the one thing all those gifts have in common is that we no longer have them! They are all in a landfill somewhere now! The only gift that lasts eternally is the gift of Jesus Christ and the benefits He brings.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, don’t fret that you didn’t get what you wanted this Christmas, you already have everything you will ever need. If you’re not, whatever you didn’t get wouldn’t ultimately make you happy anyway. True happiness is only found in knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That’s the best gift ever. If you have that, you’ll never want a refund, return or exchange.
