By Dinecia Gates
We are in a season where, although we try our hardest, we are often consumed by consumerism. Sometimes we worry ourselves sick with trying to figure out how we are going to get something special for every person on our list. This Christmas I want to offer a suggestion that may help you stress less and save more: learn to master the art of regifting.
Regifting has to be one of the most thought of, but least discussed, practices around the holiday season. We’ve all done it to someone, or we’ve had it done to us.
Although both statements are true, we rarely think of regifting as a good thing. As you read the title of this article, I imagine it made you cringe a little: “The Art of Regifting?” Huh?
Regift Your Best Gift
Nobody wants something somebody didn’t want before them. Furthermore it’s very rare we regift something we deeply treasure.
This Christmas I want you to give away, to regift, the best thing you’ve ever been given.
This Christmas I want that all to change. I want you to give away, to regift, the best thing you’ve ever been given. Yes, you read that right. The best thing.
No, not that terrible reindeer sweater Aunt Janet gave you last Christmas. You know the one you immediately took home and shoved into the great abyss that is your closet. That one. I don’t want you to give that away. She bought that for you. Keep it!
Regift the Good News
What I want you to regift cannot be not found in your home but in your heart: the good news.
Matthew 10:5–8 reads: “These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.”
What I want you to regift cannot be not found in your home but in your heart: the good news. Click To TweetDuring Jesus’ time with the disciples, He had been giving them gifts He intended for them to share. By the benefit of private conferences with Him and the observations they made of His doctrine and conduct, they were greatly qualified for public usefulness.
Therefore Jesus commissioned the disciples, furnishing them with power and authority. Jesus sent them forth by pairs, that they might assist one another and bear a joint testimony to the gospel they preached.
Regift the good news.
I think we often forget that the good news is the best gift we have ever received, and the best gift we could possibly give to those around us. Because of His great love, the only wise God came to dwell among us. He came to give us hope and a future. He came to give us power over sin and shame. He came so that we might have life, new life, and life more abundantly.
The older I get the more I realize that true value and worth doesn’t lie in what you give but Who you give. The old hymn “Give Me Jesus” says it this way:
In the morning, when I rise,
In the morning, when I rise,
In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus.
Give me Jesus, give me Jesus, you may have all this world, Give me Jesus.
This holiday season, I admonish you to think less about what new item you can purchase for someone, and more about how you can use what you’ve been given (your gifts and talents) to share the greatest gift you’ve been given: the good news. Give them Jesus.
Dinecia Gates holds two degrees in communication and loves traveling, flowers, cupcakes, the beach, and coffee. She serves as director of admissions for Urshan College and Urshan Graduate School of Theology.
Resources and Links
Apostolic Handbook Series make great gifts– Add to your library this in-depth resource collection divided by sections of the Bible, filled with research and Apostolic insight, and available in individual volumes or as a whole set.
A version of this content originally appeared in Reflections. To see more content or subscribe, visit Reflections.