'Tis The Season - Part 2

I suppose there is always a risk in posting another human being's written work in it's entirety. It is true, though, that any human words are nothing if they are not in one accord with the Word of God.
Emerson's beliefs may have played into his thoughts on gift giving, but if they did his ultimate point was that the best gift is the gift of yourself. Looking to the Holy Word for direction I find this to be true.

Matthew 22:36-40, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

1 Peter 2:24, Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 

1 Corinthians 12:31, But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.
(and the next verse is the beginning of chapter 13... the Love chapter.)

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 & 13, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
...
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 

.....and there are so many more verses!!! Try Roman's 6:23, Ephesians 2:8-9, 2 Corinthians 9:15, Isaiah 9:6... the list goes on... and on and on!!!!!!
 
I think Emerson's point was, in essence, Matthew 22:36-40. His purpose is not so much to get us to judge the gift or the giver, but as a good essay should do, it is to get us to examine our own selves, and to inspire us to love our neighbor as we would love ourselves.


Another one of my favorite authors is Robert Fulghum. ...and this short story from his book, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, always pops into my mind when I think of doing things for others:

Elias Schwartz repairs shoes. He's short and round and bald and single and middle-aged and Jewish. "An old-fashioned cobbler," says he, nothing more, nothing less. I happen to be convinced that he is really the 145th reincarnation of the Haiho Lama. 
See, the Haiho Lama died in 1937, and the monks of Sa-skya monastery have been searching for forty years for his reincarnation without success. The New York Times carried the story last summer. The article noted that the Lama would be recognized by the fact that he went around saying and doing wise things in small, mysterious ways, and that he would be doing the will of God without understanding why.
Through some unimaginable error in the cosmic switching yards, the Haiho Lama has been reincarnated as Elias Schwartz. I have no doubts about it. 
My first clue came when I took my old Bass loafers in for total renewal. The works. Elias Schwartz examined them with intense care. With regret in his voice he pronounced them not worthy of repair. I accepted the unwelcome judgment. Then he took my shoes, disappeared into the back of the shop, and I waited and wondered. He returned with my shoes in a stapled brown bag. For carrying, I thought. 
When I opened the bag at home that evening, I found two gifts and a note. In each shoe, a chocolate chip cookie wrapped in waxed paper. And these words in the note: "Anything not worth doing is worth not doing well. Think about it. Elias Schwartz. "
The Haiho Lama strikes again.
And the monks will have to go on looking. Because I'll never tell - we need all the Lamas here we can get.

Yes, yes, he used the words 'monks' and 'reincarnation' in association with God, but Mr. Fulghum happened to be a parish minister for 22 years and most likely doesn't believe in those things. His point? The best gifts are the gifts that we are not obliged to give, the ones that are a part of our own selves ...that would seem as a loss to the selfish man. A gift that makes the receiver's life better.  
 
Matthew 7:21, Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Acts 20:35, I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

John 3:16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.