Packaging and Waste: Practice 1

During the holidays, it's a great time to think about packaging gifts. Think of all the paper and gift bags and bows and boxes and labels that we buy for one moment and then throw away. Think of what this says about us on a day that we say is about hope, generosity, and love. The Wise Men brought extravagant gifts to give baby Jesus. I do not imagine, though, that after the gold, frankincense, and myrrh were presented, that Mary and Joseph had multiple bags of trash set outside the stable door.

If we are to give extravagantly, do we really want the extravagance to be, in part, something we hardly value after the gift is opened? Try this practice: Focus more on the gift than the packaging. Wrap your gift in something you already had, that was to be thrown out anyway like newspaper or magazines. It can be made much more personal this way. If you are using the gift bags, save them for next year. You will never buy gift packaging again. They fold neatly and don’t take up much space when stored with the rest of you Christmas decorations.

Make every bit of your gift meaningful and humble yourself this Christmas season. Think of how perfectly peaceful the story of the Wise Men rings. A poor family by the world’s standards is given gifts by rich people by the world’s standards who have been humbled by God.