Authentic Gift Giving Is An Expression of Who You Are

Daily Spiritual Insight from the Story of The Little Prince

“I just don’t know what to get him,” Cathy, forty-two, confided in her twin sister as she tried to decide on a Christmas gift for their father. “He always says he has everything he wants.”

Amy chuckled. “Just the other day I was visiting and he said the same as he always does: ‘Don’t spend your money on expensive gifts for me this Christmas. I don’t need anything.’ That’s why I always get him clothes.”

“Well, what else is there?” Cathy said. “He has everything he needs. At least clothes are something he’ll use, even if he takes them back and exchanges them.”

Amy sighed. “I’ve bought him shirts, ties, pants, coats. I’ve never once been able to select anything he kept. Every year he says he likes them, and every year he takes them back and chooses something different.”

“It used to really bother me,” Cathy said, “but now I’m resigned to it.”

For years Amy and Cathy had thought that an expensive gift was the only way to show how much they cared about their father. Without realizing it, they had been intruding on his personal tastes in clothing. Had they listened to him, he’d been telling them all along that he didn’t need this kind of gift.

Browsing in the mall, Amy hit on an idea. “Why don’t we have our portraits taken?”

“He can hardly take those back,” Cathy laughed. “Besides, he doesn’t have a recent portrait of us.”

The twins had a portrait made and their father, delighted with the gift, proudly displayed it on the mantelpiece.

Amy took an art class during the course of the next year. This opened up a new avenue for her to express herself next Christmas. Cathy, an excellent cook, made homemade chocolates, which her father relished.

The only acts that are ultimately meaningful are those that in some sense celebrate who we are.

If you read the story of the Little Prince’s encounter with the king on the first asteroid he visits after leaving home, the king is all about having people bow to his wishes instead of express who they are. In his grandiosity, he expects the Little Prince to cater to his whims.

Authentic giving means giving because we truly want to give. Everything else is hollow.

When our giving is a celebration of ourselves, Christmas, Hanukkah, and other occasions for gift giving becomes a chance for self-expression. A gift given from the heart says who we are.

Because it isn’t something we have control over, what we receive may or may not be what we truly want.

But when we give as an expression of our own joy, it makes us happy.

We are exercising our joy.

Feeling good about ourselves, and sharing how good we feel, is what makes giving more blessed than receiving.