Sixpence none the richer

Like clockwork every year the kids bring home a note reminding us that their Santa Shop is right around the corner. This is an ingenious event someone came up with wherein we send money with each child and they bring home some trinket that they purchase at a 300 percent markup to raise money for the school.

I usually get a handful of writing pens and a keychain, because my children know me well, and enjoy using them at work for the next year, imagining them walking around the gym at school picking them out just for me.

It’s always a very thoughtful gift that we cherish and look forward to receiving each year, but it also brings to mind what C. S. Lewis said in Mere Christianity about such gifts. When a child comes to his father and asks for money to buy the father a gift, he appreciates the gift, but he is “sixpence none the richer.” He hasn’t gained anything in the gift, except for the thoughtfulness of his child for having chosen it.

As we’ve been preparing for Christmas I’ve been thinking about that a lot; about Lewis’s point that our loving God is of God to begin with. As we celebrate the manger scene and baby Jesus, it occurs to me that He gave me the breath in my lungs with which to sing Silent Night in the first place.

My ability to celebrate the gift of His Son is in itself a gift from Him.

What’s especially moving, though, is that God is not cynical about all of this. He gave me everything that I have, from material things to the blood flowing through my body, yet He is still pleased that I would give them back to Him. Even though they make Him sixpence none the richer.

As we open presents and gorge ourselves today, I pray we all take a moment to remember the greatest gift of all.

And may we all have a new keychain with a cheesy phrase on it under the tree.