I have to be honest: I’ve received some truly sucktacular gifts in my lifetime.
Growing up on comic books, music and action-adventure novels, I’m a relatively easy guy to buy for. An Amazon gift certificate pretty much rocks my world, while giving me more than enough funds to restock my music library (with the LEGAL versions of songs that I deleted years ago. Note: Just because a cheap music site is legal in Russia and accessible to you in America DOESN’T make it right).
One vivid memory was a birthday shortly after college. My parents had helped Kim and I as we moved to Lexington, Kentucky, and after unpacking our stuff and going out to dinner, it was time to do the birthday thing. So my parents wheeled in some of their luggage (you know, since they didn’t have time to wrap the stuff), and I began unzipping the suitcases with thinly veiled zeal. What could possibly be inside these things, I wondered? That’s gotta be a pretty huge action figure to fit in here! And so on went my thoughts…
Until I reached the final piece of the Russian doll luggage set, all fitting snugly into the other, and found… nothing.
I was sadly perplexed. Where was the gift, I wondered aloud. My parents simply smiled and informed me that the luggage WAS the gift.
At which point two things happened: 1) my heart sank swiftly and 2) Kim started snickering.
The first reaction is pretty obvious. Being a self-centric birthday brat, I was sad I didn’t get “anything I wanted.” But why would Kim start yukking it up in the corner? Why indeed…
That would be because a month earlier? When my mother had called her to ask what I wanted for my birthday? Kim thought for a moment, considered what we could use “as a couple” and said without a second thought, “Luggage.”
So to this day the word “luggage” has a special meaning to me. It means sadness. Disappointment. Maybe egocentric snottiness. But whenever anyone now asks me what Kim wants for a gift? I’m ready with a quick answer: she wants a MacBook Pro. (Or an iPad… or a Kindle Fire…)
To be honest, though, the luggage wasn’t the suckiest gift I was ever given. That honor goes to my in-laws, Dave and Sue Linton. Way back in 2005, I believe, I unwrapped a Christmas gift to find myself staring at… a Black and Decker Rechargeable Hand Vac. I thought it was one of the most bizarre gifts I’d ever received. ‘Cause giving Kevin a tool – ANY tool – is like giving a handyman a free license for Scrivener, the best writing software EVER. The potential is simply wasted.
So the vacuum sat in its wrapping for a good month after Christmas, gathering dust until I could decide whether I was going to sell it on eBay or Craigslist. At least, that was the plan until… THAT DAY.
That would be the day Kyler spilled his bowl of cereal all over the kitchen floor. I believe it was dry and completely milk-free, but I’m honestly not sure. All I remember is looking at the pieces of Cheerios spread across the tiles and thinking to myself, “Now, what’s the best way to clean THIS up?” And then I remembered: I had the perfect tool! Right in the other room!
The room was sucked clean in minutes. And I was impressed. Strongly so.
And now? Now I can say that getting that bizarre, seemingly pointless gift was the BEST gift I’ve ever been given. (Next to my wife presenting me with a MacBook, I suppose…) Why? Because I use that vacuum EVERY SINGLE DAY. Now that we have three clones instead of just one? That’s three times the crumbs, crusts and crispy stuff strewn around the house. And having a strong handy vac on hand? A lifesaver.
Sometimes God gives us something that looks a lot like luggage. We’re praying and hoping hard for something else, something we think would be cool or that we desperately need, and He gives us the exact opposite. And we frown and whine and think there must be some mistake. “Surely, God, you didn’t mean to give me THIS? Did you? Because I’m pretty sure there was a mix-up in heaven or something…”
But God doesn’t make mistakes.
Matthew 6:8 says that God “knows what you need before you ask Him.” While we might accept that part, that God’s omniscient, we have a harder time believing the bigger picture: God Loves Us.
So if we believe that 1) God loves us and 2) that He knows what our needs are, then why do we freak out so much? Why do we question what in the world He’s giving us when we know that He’s only going to give us what’s for our good?
You might not see it today, buried under everything that’s on top of you. But one day? You’ll be in a position to actually thank God for the empty luggage He’s giving you right now.
(Insert your own “fill your empty luggage with your life experiences” analogy here)
- Kevin
