And for Christmas I Want ...

It was a few days before Christmas and my personable friend and colleague asked me to accompany her on a visit to a newbie missionary in town. We spent an enjoyable afternoon with her, just chatting and getting to know her. In the course of the conversation, the friend who invited me said, "Why don't we all share what we'd like to get this Christmas?"

My friend wanted a Christmas sweater, I can't remember what the new missionary desired, but I said (and those who know me will not be surprised), "I would like a book." The friend who had invited me bent over laughing. The new missionary, of an elegant and reticent demeanor, and I blinked and looked at each other in confusion. What, pray tell, was so funny about wanting a book?

Then, through snorts and chortles, my friend was finally able to spit out, "It's just that I had this sudden vision of Janine, who loves books so much that she was dressed in the pages of a book!" I smiled politely and, in the interest of transparency, tried hard to hide the fact that the picture she envisioned of me, dressed in pages of all things, stung. Having sat at the foot of a mother in whose sight my appearance was never quite good enough, I admit to a sensitivity in the area of appearance. As I struggled to bridle my angst, the new missionary spoke up.

"You know," she said, "my father used to say, 'People will always find money for what they want.'"

Not only was I grateful for the redirection in conversation, her words also resonated in my spirit. In fact, they impressed themselves in my mind to such a degree that I have never forgotten them. They hold a world of truth.

Think of drug addicts. Come what may, they find a way to get those drugs they crave. Cut-throat businessmen are called cut-throat for a reason. They are not swayed by lovey-dovey sentiment (like loyalty to a company as in the days of yore) but only by the bottom line. With that goal in mind, they cut what they must, slice and dice away at their competitors, to come up on top as they hold on to the mighty dollar. Then there are the academics, those in whose lives education is king. They work, scout out grants, do whatever they need to do to get that learning that will grant them the degree they covet. The woman who loves to look like she just stepped out of a magazine will scrimp and scrape together the money she "needs" to acquire the items for that look. Our parents and grandparents who lived through the Great Depression came through it marked by a need to economize to a degree that ensured they would never feel their stomach rubbing up on their backbone again, often skating a mighty fine line between frugality and miserliness. The man who loves to work on cars finds a way to get jalopies to fix. On and on we could go. Whatever a man, or woman, desires, he or she works to get, by hook or by crook, as the saying goes.

It stands to reason, then, that one's desires are pretty important. They are a sure-fire litmus test showing what is important to us and what we will strive for. No wonder James 1:14-15 warns us, " ... each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." What we desire is of supreme importance: good desires will bring forth good effects while bad desires ... let's just say that desires that are not godly will have devastating consequences.

That long-ago Christmas, it wasn't "wrong" of us, per se, to express a desire for a "thing." My friend did in fact get her sweater and I did get my book. When we belong to Jesus and put our love in Him, our loving Heavenly Father delights in giving us things we don't even really need. Just look at Psalm 37:4, which gives us a peep into the heart of God in this matter. It reads, "Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."

But just like Paul said about seeking the spiritual gifts with which God longs to bless His children, "covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way" (1 Corinthians 12:31). What is that more excellent way? Love. In fact, Paul dedicated the entire next chapter to it. Similarly, it is not wrong to desire some of the fleeting possessions of this world. But as children of the most High God, our overriding desire should ever be Him.

Well did the psalmist write, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God" (Psalm 42:1). It is not wrong to desire and work towards obtaining a new something. But above that desire should be the crown jewel of desires: a desire for Him.

This Christmas season, may the Lord grant you that earthly possession you long for, and, with it, an all consuming desire to know Him more and more.

"He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them" (Psalm 145:19).