Have You Hidden Your Gifts?

Image via WikipediaThere's a lot of talk in the Christmas season about gifts.  Making a wish list of gifts, shopping for gifts, giving gifts, opening gifts... Last year I was given a gift wrapped in gorgeous paper tied up with an extravagant bow full of feathers and sparkly things.  I shook the present and carefully felt the weight of it,  all the while trying to figure out what treasure it might hold inside.  I thanked the person who gave it to me and assured them it was certainly a lovely gift and I would open it soon.  Not that day, because I didn't really have time, but some day soon, I promised the giver that I would open the gift.  I put the gift away, fully intending to open it but after a while, I forgot about the gift and only recently just about a year later, I found it hidden away on a shelf.  I almost opened it when I discovered it, but decided it was probably too late and how would I ever thank the person for the gift now? So reluctantly and sadly, I put it back on the shelf.  Maybe next year, when I have time to unwrap it and send a belated thank you card explaining the oversight, I'll do something about it but right now... well I'm busy with a lot of other urgent things.  Sound familiar?  Of course not!  Who neglects to open a gift for a whole year, never mind decides to wait even longer to see what is inside?  Yet this is exactly how we often treat our own gifts and talents.

There is a story of a miser who had a valuable bag of gold coins and in order to keep them safe, he kept them buried in the backyard.  Every once in a while he would dig up the coins, marvel at his great treasure, then carefully bury them again.  One day a thief, followed him to the secret hiding place and after the owner left, he quickly dug up the treasure and stole away with it.  The owner was despondent over his loss.  A friend to console him told him, "Just bury a bag of fake gold.  You can easily dig it up periodically and marvel over it just as you did the real gold.  For all the good the bag of gold did you, a bag of fake gold will do just as well."  Seems like a heartless comment doesn't it?  But doesn't it ring true?"

Amid the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, take time to reflect on your true gifts and how you are using them.  Are you hoarding them?  Are you wishing that you had time and energy to develop them?  Do you recognize what they are? Or, have you developed them and put them to use for yourself, for your community, for the world?