Thank You God for making “gift” a verb. We only see “gift” as that beautifully wrapped (“Save the paper,” says stingy grandmother) box, a bow on top and under a December’s evergreen or before us on our birthday or anniversary.
You made “gift” an action – something to be shared, exchanged and used and reused again and again. It’s life, it’s our talents, it’s our potential as well as setbacks that teach us to redefine ourselves or revise a pattern of thinking, it’s a parent’s death that causes us to hug our children a little tighter at night, it’s our smile to the cashier whose last thought is you standing in front of her, it’s the space of silence your provide for a troubling friend, it’s your quiet of thirty minutes before you go to bed with the children asleep and your husband in the next room, it’s the “I don’t know” in your eyes when you truly do not know, it’s spotting a friend’s look that doesn’t look good …
it’s our unfolding gifts in the job we’ve prepared for or the job that seemed to prepare itself for us, it’s learning and relearning teamwork when you prefer independence, it’s an unfolding gift that your boss sees in you that you didn’t see for yourself, it’s the “this and that” of any day that sparks encounters, conversation, laughter, and even at times tears.
Lord God, thank You for making “gift” a verb and not a dead noun that lays there until it’s ripped opened and then possibly returned the next day. Your verb-gift is either returned to us in friendship or offered and dismissed. Either way, it is still your verb-gift. We know that “re-gifting” is tacky in our culture but in Your eyes it is a parent’s example to a quarreling young boy that, years later as a man, he remembers when another quarrel begins. This modeling is rarely named but somewhere and somewhere retained in the young person’s soul. That’s the “re-gifting” You want from us.
Verbs move and have actions. A printed diagram would have arrows pointing back and forth showing both words and silences of care, concern, sympathy or encouragement.
Thank You God for giving us a verb-word that’s able to uncover, unwrap and share with all those we meet.
Sorry, grandma, there’s nothing to save when the word “gift” becomes a verb.
Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
Soulful Muse 