Gift exchange?

Tonight we went to my husband's monthly support group for brain injury survivors. Of course, being December, we made it a social event, with potluck supper and a gift exchange. It was nice to just focus on having fun.

As I thought about having a gift exchange, it just didn't make sense that you would bring a gift and come home with a different gift that someone else had brought. Why not just keep the gift you brought in the first place? Chances were good that your gift was something you liked anyway. Seems kind of silly, when you think about it. But people seem to enjoy it anyway.

Wouldn't it be more Christian to give a gift to all the significant people in your life and not get anything in return? After all, Jesus gave the Gift of His life, so that we could live, and He doesn't expect anything in return. But then, I thought--wait a minute, maybe Jesus does expect something from us. He expects our whole hearts, all our love and trust. Of course, our gift could never match His, since the whole world has benefited from His death on the cross. But there is an exchange going on in this act of salvation. God receives a relationship with His children, in exchange for His mercy and grace.

So, I think I'll keep going to gift exchanges. It really is a "give and take" world, even when it comes to God.