Regifting Christmas

Are you familiar with the concept of "Regifting"? Webster's Dictionary defines regifting as "To give an unwanted gift to someone else; to give as a gift something one previously received as a gift."

Most people would agree that there's nothing wrong with regifting. According to regiftable.com more than half of Americans surveyed said they had regifted something and it was perfectly acceptable. Especially when the regifting is beneficial for both the giver and the receiver.

But, For every successful "regift" (that extra toaster you got at your wedding that you gave to your cousin at his wedding and they loved it!), there is at least one or two stories of regifting gone wrong. Here's a few examples...

One woman tells this story... "I have an aunt who is a bit of a pack rat. I'm used to getting really tacky gifts from her but don think much of it and just donate them to goodwill. Its the thought that counts. Well one year she gave me a nice two pound box of Sees Candies. I thought wow, finally at least something I can use. Who doesn't like chocolate, right? So I open it up and grab one and take a big bite and immediately spit it out. Something was horribly wrong. It was disgusting! I thought how can you possibly mess up chocolate? I look on the box and found a USE BY date and it was a box from the mid 70's!"

If you like that one, you'll love this...  "This year was my high school graduation, and my family members were more than generous with their overflow of gifts and money. That included my dead beat grandfather that sent me a gift card from Target dated from February for 25 dollars, my graduation was in June let me remind you. I went to Target to pick out a nice 25 dollar item, when I get to the cash register and was told there was only $13.73 left on it. Yes, not only an old, but used gift card. My mother was furious with him.

OK, one more just for fun... My wife had sprung it on me that we were going to my father-in-laws house for my brother-in-laws birthday and we both realized that we didn't have a gift for him and there wasn't enough time to run to the store so I decided to go through my closet in hopes of finding a gift. I opened the closet and started to rummage through my clothes when low and behold, I find the Holy Grail that I'm looking for, a BRAND NEW sweater with the TAGS still attached. My wife quickly wrapped it and we left. After blowing out the candles he begins to open his gift and when he lifts it up for everyone to see with a funny smile on his face. I couldn't tell if he was happy, disappointed, or disgusted. He turns to me and says " So I guess you didn't like the sweater either?" So I said "what do you mean?" all confused. I he replied "My ex-girlfriend gave me this sweater 3 years ago and I didn't care for it so I gave it to you as a Christmas gift a few years ago."

I could read these stories all day! They crack me up...  


But they also get me thinking... We regift Christmas PRESENTS but what if we simply regifted CHRISTMAS? How many times as Christians do we say something like "The greatest gift ever given to mankind was Jesus Christ."? What a great gift it was! After all, because of our sin, we were destined for eternal separation from God if not for this gift. We needed Jesus to come just the way he did so that we might receive the gift that Romans 6:23b tells us about when it says, "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Every year at Christmas, we celebrate the virgin birth of our Lord and Savior as he came into the flesh, dwelt among us and made it possible for us to live eternally with him. We reflect on the awesomeness of the gift and we express our continued thanks for the redemptive work that began in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. But have you ever thought about taking the gift of Jesus Christ, that was given to you, and REGIFTING it for Christmas? If it truly was the greatest gift you've ever received, it stands to reason that someone you know could probably use it as well. What better time of year than Christmas to give the gift of Jesus Christ to someone who needs him?

These thoughts have led me to a new series at Vantage Point that will begin on December 12th. It's Called "Regifting Christmas" and will last for 3 weeks. We will look more specifically at the gifts God has given us and we will challenge ourselves to Regift these gifts to the world. Here's the schedule:

December 12th -"Regifting Love"
December 19th- "Regifting Hope"
December 26th- "Regifting Forgiveness"

Please come be with us for this exciting series, during a very exciting time of the year. I know you won't want to miss it. The best part is, when you're "Regifting Christmas" you don't have to remember to change the wrapping paper or the tags on the box!

God Bless!