IT WAS ON CHRISTMAS EVE IN MOSCOW...

The media can be blamed, or credited, for inventing and providing the general public with many things, among them, new ‘buzzwords’. One such word first popped up on a TV comedy show a couple of years ago; re-gifting! It means rewrapping a present one didn't want and consequently, rewrapping it and re-gifting it to someone else, making certain of course, that one doesn’t mistakenly re-gift it to the original “giver”. The television program suggested that the genesis of the word stems from the ubiquities Christmas fruitcake. Their claim was in fact that only three fruitcakes were ever baked in the USA. The perception that fruitcakes exist in far greater numbers stems from the fact that they are never unwrapped from their colorful cellophane and devoured, they are simply re-gifted..

Even though the word re-gifting is relatively new, the practice is not. Re-gifting began with God, Mary and Joseph, on the first Christmas Eve. One won’t find the word re-gifting in Webster’s dictionary yet. However, both the Old and New Testament provide a definition of re-gifting and are replete with examples and exhortations. On that first Christmas Eve God gifted Himself to us in the form of His Son, gifting Himself as it were, "He hath given all things into the hands” of His creatures. His was a gift designed specifically for you and me, and to all.

Do you remember when you first heard the name Jesus, and He became real to you? Perhaps for you, like me, one of the most powerful remembrances was the family Christmas Eve table. It was my SA officer grandparents reading the Christmas story at the table… and some years later my parents doing the same… always on Christmas Eve.

Sixteen years ago I celebrated re-gifting at a rather unusual Christmas Eve table. It was in Moscow, Russia, and it served as a powerful reminder of what the consequences of re-gifting can be.

I was privileged with other Christians to serve in Russia, immediately following Perestroika- they were busy, heady and often difficult times. One of my favorite monthly activities was leading the Sunday evening devotions at the USA Embassy, a gated community in the center of Moscow with high walls protecting it. A group of some 35-40 expats, Americans living in, or visiting Moscow, would meet to worship. Visitors were always found in our small assembly and one Sunday there were five USA military officers visiting our evening service. All five belonged to the Association of Christian Military Fellowship and had been active for several weeks in signing up Russian regiments. They were given opportunity to share the Gospel with large groups of military personnel, an unheard of witness opportunity in the history of the Soviet military. Hundreds and eventually thousands of Russian military personnel accepted Christ and joined the Russian branch of the association.

Following the service at the Embassy we shared a burger and Coke and we spoke about how The Salvation Army could perhaps be helpful in their gaining access to the Russian Military Officer Academy. They had learned that one of my activities was lecturing weekly at the Academy and they were anxious to meet Russian military officers and cadets.

We arranged to have dinner that week, and the date would be December 24. We met at a typical Russian restaurant. It was rowdy and I recall the rooms were smoke-filled, enough to sting one’s eyes…Vodka and champagne was flowing freely; the voices of the Russians loud as they sang and toasted each other. We heard their exuberance well before venturing inside. As we entered, dressed in USA military officer uniforms and two of us in Salvation Army uniforms, we must have been a very strange sight.

Those in the restaurant raised their glasses and voices in welcoming us, and then returned to their merry making. We were quickly seated at our Christmas table, ordered our meals and bowed in prayer… it was our Christ mass table, thousands of miles from our families who were celebrating their Christmas Eve overseas, at home.

Our thoughts and conversation naturally turned to “family”. One of the USA military officers shared that he was born and raised in Chicago, and went on to say that he became a Christian as a young boy. A Salvation Army officer had come to his home on Christmas Eve delivering a parcel of food and toys to him and his siblings. His father, he explained, “had abandoned the family and they were living on welfare. After passing out the Christmas gifts the Salvation Army man asked my mother”, he said, “if he might be allowed to read the Christmas story- we sat at our kitchen table as he read… and then he asked me and my sisters if we’d like to have Jesus living in our hearts- we knelt there in our tiny kitchen, and he prayed with us- and Jesus has been my Lord ever since”.

Having grown up in Chicago myself, and with interest piqued, I asked where in Chicago was their home? “On the north side of the city,” he said. “That’s interesting”, I replied, “because I also lived on the north side, and in fact went to Lake View High School, near Wrigley Field.”

“So did my sister”, he exclaimed! I asked what year was that visit to your home, and he informed me that it was 1960. I asked him to describe the SA Officer who had visited his home and he shared, “he was tall, maybe in his late 30s, and he spoke English with an accent of some kind.” “Could it have been a Swedish accent”, I asked? And at that moment all of us at that Christmas table realized concurrently, as tears flowed freely, that the man who had brought the gift of Jesus to that young boy, 40 years earlier on a Christmas Eve was my father. The re-gifting of the story of the birth of Jesus, the love of God, to that young boy was the catalyst that was now bringing the name of Jesus to thousands of Russian military men and women, former atheists and agnostics. The Name above all other names was being re-gifted.

Although the word re-gifting doesn’t exist officially, I did an internet search and was more than a little surprised at the number of websites committed to teaching re-gifting. And there are already rules of etiquette about re-gifting. There is one rule among several that I want to share….

Not only is it okay to regift, but there are times you are obligated to regift. If someone else could benefit from a gift, you are obliged to re-gift

Is there any greater “gift” that we as Christians can share with others? Jesus makes clear what re-gifting demands in Matthew 28:19 (NIV). “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”

Dr. Sven Ljungholm,
Hamilton. Scotland