The Dilemma

My wife and I are facing a Christmas dilemma involving our ten year old daughter. Both sets of grandparents are putting the screws to us about this and we have no answers. We check in with said daughter and she is nothing but a mystery shrouded in an enigma. All we want is the answer to one question so that we can get everyone off our backs...

What do you want for Christmas?

Here's the thing, when we do ask this question, my daughter does have an answer, it is just not what anyone wants to hear. The list is basically a statistically representative sampling of the items stocked in the toy aisle of the local Dollar Tree. We've got fart putty (which I'll admit liking myself), little plastic pigs, feather boa and other various treasures that all cost nothing more than 100 cents.

And while I am happy that my daughter knows what she wants, it is more than a little humorous on the level of gift that she will settle for. You see, the grandmothers (probably not unlike most grandparents) will buy anything for her. Case in point, a couple years ago the daughter saw a pair of earrings at Wal-Mart (we only shop at the best places) and described them to my mom. As a gift that year, the daughter received three pairs of gem stone earrings, one diamond, one ruby, one emerald all with certificates of authenticity from a well known local jewelry shop.

As an aside, I had been pretty proud of the 100% silver hoop earrings that I had bought for my beautiful wife, but they did not come with a certificate of authenticity. Yet, my wife's first question for my daughter was, "can we swap sometime?" I relate this with absolutely no bitterness since I was considering getting my ears pierced so that I could borrow a pair.

Anyway, the riches of the world await this daughter of mine, yet when asked to choose, she opts for fart putty (again, not so bad) that costs 20 nickels.

While I was belaboring telling the frustrated grandparents of their granddaughter's answer to the desire-of-her-heart question, it occurred to me that this is the exact picture of what we do with God.

God, too, promises us the desires of our heart and we so often get caught up making requests for a happy marriage, the kids to behave or more money in the bank. Not that we aren't supposed to desire these things or that the need to eat isn't pressing, but asking for these things is like asking for dollar store earrings when you could get diamond studs.

The riches of heaven await - in the form of Jesus. It is Jesus that is to be the desire of our hearts. He is the blessing. God stands at the ready to pour out an ever increasing amount of his Spirit out on us. When we make selling the house the preeminent desire of our heart, we treat God as if His gift of Jesus is in some way inadequate. Ultimately that is God's objective, that we would desperately seek Jesus.

(Addendum: I wanted to end this blog with the previous paragraph, but feel like I should make one clarifying statement: in no way am I claiming that we should not present our requests to God or that He is aloof to any of the needs of our life. Scripture is clear on both of those issues. Often we try to pray away the very thing(s) that God is trying to use to draw us closer to the Savior. So, what I am driving at is, "Is Jesus enough?" If your marriage never gets any better, if your financial situation never improves, but you do have an identity in Christ - would that be OK? The question that hangs on my wall when I get to work everyday says it like this "Are you living for heaven? Or do you live demanding life be like heaven?" My false self fights for the latter, while my new creation longs for the former.)