This Christmas, just like any other Christmas, we left our presents under the tree on the night of the 24th. Each gift was nicely wrapped with the name of the intended recipient carefully labelled on the front. We play a game of trying to guess what is in the present by asking each other questions such as, What does it feel like?, What does it look like? and What do you think it could be used for? Then, brimming with excitement we all go to bed, to wrap ourselves in a blanket of anticipation. – Sounds like suffering but it´s fun I promise!
The next morning, we open the gifts and for me its normally a pair of colourful socks or a crazy jumper, but for my 3 young kids it could be anything from a Lego set to a bicycle. Each gift we give is designed to bring joy to the recipient. Imagine the look of disappointment on my son´s face when he opened the gift that was bought for one of my daughters but I had inadvertently mislabelled it.
He had asked for a robot, but instead he got a colouring set. I could see his disappointment followed by resignation as he “settled” for the gift that was bought to give my daughter hours of joy and pleasure.
It made me reflect, how many of us rush to the “Christmas Tree” of life and pick up the wrong gift and are now struggling to see how it can add value to our lives today?
Maybe we are in the #wrong job, or living in the wrong house or even married to the wrong person. The deeper #reflection for 2020 is that what maybe is the wrong #gift for us is the right one for someone else. Yes, you may be occupying the seat of someone else´s #dream job right now, and they, yours!
In the end, my son and daughter were smart enough to realise the mistake and were brave enough to say “this one is not for me thanks”. They seamlessly swapped gifts and peace reigned supreme once again.
Did you get what you want this Christmas?