For me, one welcome sight of this season is malls filled with shoppers laden down with gifts for family and friends.  This is an incredible tribute to our spirit of love for others.

Giving a gift strengthens a bond; you are saying, “I love you."  Additionally, gift giving makes the world a less lonely place. Have you noticed the warm feeling you get about the person to whom you give a gift?  Not surprisingly, the Hebrew word for love AHaV is rooted in the Hebrew word for give—HaV.

Giving gifts is a powerful tool for making and mending relationships.  There are many people with whom you need to retain relationships for either family reasons or business purposes.  There is your brother-in-law, Fred, whom you’re not crazy about.  That customer Agatha, who makes you jump through hoops but whose business is significant.  Wouldn’t you like to feel more genuine warmth toward them? 

I think the answer should be “Yes!” particularly when you realize that most people possess a subtle sense of whether you really like them or are merely putting on an insincere act.  Giving a gift to Fred and Agatha is less about making them feel closer to you and more about making you feel much more warmth toward them. 

Notice the gift that Jacob sent with his ten sons to the second-most powerful man in the world, Pharaoh’s right-hand man.

Why did Jacob dispatch such a seemingly worthless gift to a major political figure? 

This question is even more baffling when we recall that Jacob certainly knew how to send lavish gifts.  Earlier in his life he sent an enormous gift of livestock to his brother Esau.  You can read the extensive list of the five hundred and fifty animals that he sent in Genesis 32:15-16.

Yet to a ruler of Egypt he sent a little party platter?

Jacob knew exactly what he was doing.  He knew that his brother Esau was not a sentimental man.  Esau was a materialist who valued life only in material terms, thus for the gift to have impact on both Esau and Jacob it had to be economically substantive.  That gift served as a catalyst for the brothers embracing when they met.  (Genesis 33:4) And because Jacob sent a meaningful gift, Esau detected no duplicity in Jacob when they embraced.  The gift helped Jacob form a relationship with his estranged brother.

However, when Jacob directed his sons to take a gift to Joseph, he had sensed a clue that Joseph was not focused on money.

At the end of Genesis 32, when Jacob’s sons came home from their disastrous food-buying trip to Egypt, each man found his money tucked into his bags of provisions.  They were terrified that they were being set up as thieves but their father saw something else.  While he didn’t know that the ruler of Egypt was his long-lost son, Joseph, he did sense that he was saying, “I don’t want your money—I want your love and friendship.”

For this reason, he advised his sons to take a personal rather than expensive present with them on their second purchasing expedition.  He was not trying to buy Joseph’s favor as much as he was trying to transform the emotions that his sons felt toward the Egyptian viceroy.  Jacob felt confident that once the ruler detected warmth from the brothers, he would soften. There was no better way to bring this new warmth into the hearts of his sons than have them bring a present of sentimental value.

So as you unwrap those packages this year, remember that each gift sings to you of new and stronger affections felt toward you by the giver.

I wish all our Christian subscribers a joyous and uplifting Christmas.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------For practical insights into how you can be both happier and more prosperous when money is a by-product of your actions rather than the focal point of them, please see my book Thou Shall Prosper and my audio CD, Boost Your Income: 3 Spiritual Steps to Success.