Yesterday I confessed that I have not yet finished shopping for Janet's Christmas presents. Today's Wall Street Journal has given me my inspiration: I should buy her a luxury car, or so dealers want me to believe. Car giving in December is a new trend, especially for luxury automobile manufacturers. For instance, you've probably seen the Lexus ads with the giant red bow on the Christmas car. Lexus sends two of these bows to each of its 222 dealers nationwide during its annual "Christmas to Remember" promotion. Last year they sent 550 extra bows in response to orders for more.

Such gift-giving is not without its risks, however. One husband in New York City had his wife's new Jaguar waiting outside her Upper East Side apartment building, but she put off going down to get her mystery package. He had double-parked in front of the lobby. By the time she arrived, police had given him his own Christmas present: a $115 ticket.

Dealers try to work with husbands buying such cars. They deliver them to strange locations, like the restaurant valet lot where one woman received hers. They're willing to trade the new car for another color or make. As the article says, "The last thing a gift giver wants is to shell out tens of thousands on a luxury vehicle, only to be greeted by an unappreciative recipient, looking gift horsepower in the mouth." You think?

This is precisely my dilemma each Christmas: I want to give Janet something she'll want, but am a complete idiot in figuring out what that is. I know that she'll smile and say that she loves it. But I also know that she's probably wondering what neighbor's garage sale she can put it in. If she doesn't tell me that she wants something, chances are she doesn't. But if she has to tell me, the surprise is gone. See my problem?

God didn't have our dilemma when he chose his Christmas present to give us. He made us and knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows that our greatest problem is the fact that our souls are broken, that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Philosophers have diagnosed our problem in a variety of ways over the centuries. The ancient Greeks thought our corrupted souls were put in diseased bodies to punish and purify them. Medieval theologians prescribed all sorts of corporal rituals and penances to cleanse us spiritually. Modern thinkers speak of our "alienation" from meaning and purpose. Many are pessimistic about our ability to recover significance; Jean-Paul Sartre titled his most famous play, No Exit, and his autobiography, Nausea.

The Baby born at Christmas came to change all of that. How? Let's continue tomorrow.

Copyright © 2006. Godissues.com. All rights reserved.