No Gifts Birthday Celebration

This is a post written by a dear friend of mine who will be writing some posts from time to time.

Have you ever attended a Birthday party where everyone in attendance got presents Except the person that the birthday celebration was for? Or, even worse, where the celebrant was totally ignored? As absurd as this may sound, it actually happens. Allow me to explain.


By this time of the month, we have already spent many weeks, miles and dollars on food, decorations, gifts etc. With Christmas Day closing in, most of us are still frantically running around, calling, Googling or whatever to locate those last minute “must have” items.

After all this time, money and effort, it’s finally Christmas Eve. This is for most of us the busiest day yet. As we greet this day our brains are already in over drive. We hustle to finish the cleaning. We check our cupboards against the recipes. We check our lists and then check them again to ensure that everything is ready for the “Big Day”.

By late afternoon, the children, full of anticipation, are bouncing off the walls. We, again, are busy cooking, wrapping and confirming the Christmas Day plans.

Finally, after several attempts, the children are asleep. We can now begin the chore of putting together those “assembly required” items and wrapping those final gifts.

Midnight finds us exhausted but we must push on. Daylight will be upon us shortly.

At last, we’re done with all the cooking, baking, wrapping, cleaning up and assembling. We can finally get to bed for some much needed but short lived sleep.

All too soon, the children are up yelling, “Get up mom and dad it’s Christmas, its Christmas get up! It’s here.” The day that we’ve been tirelessly working towards for the past month is actually here.

We all gather in the living room to pass out the gifts. There were presents for Johnny, for Susie, for grandpa, for grandma, for mom, for dad, for all of us. There were even presents for the dog and the cat.

With great anticipation, we all unwrap our bounty. The children excitedly tear through the wrappings like it was tissue. Look mommy. Look daddy. See what I got they exclaim.

One by one the presents are handed out until they are all gone. As the last gift is opened, we all sit back to admire our treasures. The joyous look on everyone’s face tells us that all the time, money, running around and wrapping was worth it.

But wait….what about the “Birthday Boy”? Where are the gifts for the celebrant? After all, isn’t that why we put forth all this effort, preparation, time and money? To celebrate Jesus’ birthday! Then where are His presents?

No gifts Birthday Celebration

BryanJ