The Empty Box Gift: A Proposal For a New Demonstration of Understanding Grace For My Kids This Year

I was discussing with a friend the topic of whether to reward children at Christmas if they really have not been good.  Especially on an ongoing "in a rut" sort of basis.  It just really got me thinking about something I want to do this year when we all gather around the tree to open gifts.  I'm not sure if I'm right in this, it's just where my thoughts are.

I want to give them a wrapped empty box.

I want them to feel it's emptiness for a moment.

Then I want to tell them my thoughts.

For when we think of gifting as rewards, as all good Santa stories tell, I think we miss one big point at Christmas.  Christ came for the naughty list.  

Luke 5:32
"I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repent"

I'm not saying that we should promote a boat load of naughtiness ..that's not where I'm going.  I do think it's SUCH an opportunity to talk about the state we are all in.  Whether we have stressed our naughty meeter, or we are "doing good" all the day long.

We all needed HIM. 

We all were VOID.

We were all on the naughty list.

That is why He came.

That is Christmas.

Romans 6:23
"For the wages of sin is death, but THE GIFT of God is eternal life through JESUS CHRIST our LORD"

We are the empty box, we are the void.

He is the gift we did not deserve.

The almighty God coming down to give us HIMSELF, knowing full well it was exactly what we needed.

I think I will read them this while they hold their emptiness:
Ephesians 2:1-10

2 In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God. ² Yes, in the past your lives were full of those sins. You lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God. ³ In the past all of us lived like that, trying to please our sinful selves. We did all the things our bodies and minds wanted. Like everyone else in the world, we deserved to suffer God’s anger just because of the way we were.

⁴ But God is rich in mercy, and he loved us very much. ⁵ We were spiritually dead because of all we had done against him. But he gave us new life together with Christ. (You have been saved by God’s grace.) ⁶ Yes, it is because we are a part of Christ Jesus that God raised us from death and seated us together with him in the heavenly places. ⁷ God did this so that his kindness to us who belong to Christ Jesus would clearly show for all time to come the amazing richness of his grace.

⁸ I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.⁹ You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about. ¹⁰ God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.

GRACE...

THE GIFT...

JESUS...

THE CHRIST...

FOR SINNERS....

LIKE ME....

LIKE MY CHILD....

LOVE...

HAS COME.

Then I will read this: 

Ephesians 1:7

"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,..."

Riches of GRACE...

Children are going to get that feeling of riches on Christmas morning.  That feeling of overwhelming goodness.  We know it's temporary but it reflects a bigger picture.  

We were empty...

We were void...

Grace came...

And made us rich...

So, maybe we are missing the whole point with the "be good or else" thing.  What an opportunity to demonstrate that God wanted to come and give what we surely, intensely, did NOT deserve. 

I just think it's something to think about.  Santa rewards the good kids, Jesus offers reward for sinners.  

Just blows my mind.