It’s Not The Thought That Counts

It's not even the gift. So what is it?

On Christmas Eve I found myself doing what many husbands might have found themselves doing on many Christmas Eves past. I was wrapping a present my wife had bought for me to give to her.

To be clear, I had bought my wife other presents which she did not know about. But at some point, she had decided on a present she would like, and gave it to me to give to her.

Her work in this present, however, doesn’t stop there. She also gave me wrapping paper, a pair of scissors and the correct tape that we were using this year. And I obeyed.

Obedience

Obedience is underrated. In fact, our culture despises obedience. What does Brian tell the crowd in Life of Brian? ‘Don’t let anyone tell you what to do’. It’s a sign of your individuality. Even if everyone else is disobeying.

This constant state of rebelling makes us chronically unhappy. We think we are free but are enslaved to desires that aren’t just unfulfilled but unfulfillable.

And so I used the correct paper and tape to wrap the assigned present in the pre-arranged way. It was a present I was pleased to give and my wife was very pleased to receive.

What just happened?

As you read this, two things are happening. Your head is telling you that what I did was pointless and bizarre. But your heart knows that my wrapping up that gift and giving it was inherently worthwhile. You know that because being human means you bear God’s image. You have the source code of the universe embedded in your system software. It’s not actually the thought that counts. It’s not even the gift. It’s the way it is given.

That image-bearing takes us right back to the early chapters of Genesis. In common parlance, you’d call those chapters ‘the set up episode’. But keep reading those chapters and you will stumble across the first murder. It’s not a whodunnit. There aren’t exactly suspects. Cain done it. Why? Because of a gift, what it was and the way it was given. It said everything about the relationship. Gifts are important, especially when the gift is an act of worship to the LORD God.

How do we worship God?

How can we give God what he doesn’t already have? Is this just the pre-bought Christmas present and pre-determined paper all over again? Well, yes. Kind of. Flick over to Psalm 50 and start at verse 11.

For every beast of the forest is mine.
    the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the hills,
    and all that moves in the field is mine.
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
    for the world and its fullness are mine.”

Ouch. God made world, he owns it and sustains it. I can’t give God anything he doesn’t already have any more than my children can give me a gift bought with anything other than money I have given them. And yet I long for those presents. They are so precious as they are chosen with care, wrapped with love and given with great joy. The gift itself is neither here nor there.

So how we give to God? What can we give God that he doesn’t already have? Especially if we have already given him our hearts and our lives? What do we give after that? What do we keep giving him?

God gives us everything we need to give to him. But do we give it in the way he asked to be given it? With care, reverence and awe, as well as love and joy?

Psalm 50 goes on:
“Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, 
    and perform your vows to the Most High,
and call upon me in the day of trouble;
    I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

God doesn’t need our worship. But we worship him anyway. Why? Cranmer put it beautifully in the Church of England’s 1549 Prayer Book:

Priest. Lift up your heartes.
Aunswere. We lift them up unto the Lorde.
Priest. Let us geve thankes to our Lorde God.
Aunswere. It is mete and right so to do.
The Priest. It is very mete, righte, and our bounden dutie, that wee shoulde at all tymes, and in all places, geve thankes to thee, O Lorde holy father, almightie everlastyng God.

We worship because it is “mete and right so to do”. It is appropriate. We have rather assumed that it’s the thought that counts, that we can worship God in a manner entirely of our own choosing, according to our own preferences. Does that seem right? Maybe we should look a bit harder for the right wrapping paper and this year’s tape.

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After Up, What is the Only Way?

Pete Docter is an outstanding filmmaker, producer and writer. He essentially runs Pixar. So he should. His CV is stunning. And once you’ve got movies like Up and Wall-E under your belt, what do you do next? Here’s what: Spend on $150 million of Pixar’s dollars on Soul.

Pity. It’s not good. I was really looking forward to it as it’s about jazz player, promised to be a bit theological and has the voice of Tina Fey. The only it could have been more suited to my tastes would have been the addition of a cricket match.

On balance, an animated cricket match might have made the movie better. The overall message is okay, if you can discern what it is (your passion is not your purpose, so take a moment to smell the roses?), but the storytelling is a disaster, especially by Pixar’s standards. If you want to know more, have a listen to my chat with Nate Morgan Locke on the Popcorn Parenting podcast. (We also have episodes on masterpieces like Toy Story 2 and Wall-E.)

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My Mixtape

As you have read about, jazz is really important to me. So if you’re not sick of the sound of my voice after that chat with Nate, you can listen to my chat with my Cooper and Cary Have Words co-host, Barry Cooper. I talk about music that’s been important to is me in my life. It’s a bit self-indulgent but it’s New Year, and we’re about to hit episode #100, so in episodes #98 and #99, we’re essentially pretending we’re on Desert Island Discs. Have a listen here. (We also have episodes about Sabbath, Greed and a load of other Predestination)