All I Want for Christmas...

So yesterday, I was listening to this, and yeah... I probably played and replayed it about 50 times:

(I don't even like this song, usually, but I love this group! They're Christian, but they also do secular covers... I recommend!).

However, on probably the 17th time through or so, I started thinking about the words I was listening to. "All" I want for Christmas is you. I don't need "a lot" for Christmas. I won't ask for "much" this Christmas.

Huge caveat here: I'm sure that this was not how the song was meant to be taken, so straw man, maybe? But disregarding the person is such a prevalent offense that I think this is relevant anyway.

We are each a gift, yes! Take a second to celebrate that... eat some ice cream, hug your mom, do a dance in your living room. Yay! You are a gift, and your best friend is a gift, and that person you really don't like is also a gift (sorry, can't get off the hook with that one). As it says in Gaudium et Spes, "Man finds himself only by making himself a sincere gift to others." Let's put it this way: are you happier when living only for yourself, following every whim and desire - or are you happier when you live for others? When you serve? Anyone who has ever volunteered, gone on a mission trip or raised a child would say the latter. 

Okay, so we are meant to give ourselves. But what kind of gift? 

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal." -C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

If a man or woman were to ask for you for Christmas, that would be the most amazing, incredible, intense gift that he or she could possibly receive (besides God himself, of course). Mind-blowing, really. 

Unless you're getting down on one knee with a ring (or unless this has already taken place, plus a couple "I do's"), I would be pretty hesitant about asking for a PERSON for Christmas. This isn't a gift to be given or received casually - people aren't toys that get boring, or gadgets that go out of date when the newest technology comes out. You can't throw them away or replace them. 

Don't ask for someone for Christmas, or give yourself away, unless you really mean it. And then, give radically, sacrificially... don't hold back.