Heart Gifts

It's that time of the year when the big question flying around is, "What do you want for Christmas?" For me, the answer is nothing. Nothing that is material anyway.

I can remember my ex-mother-in-law's response to that question ~ "Compassion. Just give me compassion." My ex-husband and I used to threaten to get her a gold chain with the word "compassion" dangling from it. You see, it was a time in my life when I couldn't imagine getting anything other than the latest material thing that I so desperately desired. I simply did not understand her Christmas wish list at all.

I have a whole new perspective now. It's a joy to give gifts to others, particularly when they are given from the heart and received by the heart. Heart gifts are the intangibles that we all desire ~ love, kindness, respect, compassion, understanding, listening, belonging and other needs that validate our worth. The truth be told, only God can sufficiently fulfill these needs, but being human, we desire these needs to also be met by our earthly relationships.

So we imperfect beings give imperfect gifts often in imperfect way, but they are heart gifts, and if our heart is full of the Lord, He perfects and wraps our meager offerings in the beauty and power of His love.

a month of giving

I was invited to dinner and ended up serving my hosts the tea and coffee with the dessert. It seemed an appropriate and loving gesture. After all, they had invited me into their home and prepared a meal for me ~ the least I could do was gift them back with some hospitality of my own, even if I was in their home not mine. It was a gift of my heart.