[caption id="attachment_2731" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Gift by Vanessa Fitzgerald"]<a href="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gift.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2731" src="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gift-300x220.jpg" alt="Gift by Vanessa Fitzgerald" width="300" height="220" /></a>[/caption]

Black Friday…it honestly has a very somber ring to it.

Sure, for retailers nationwide, these words are the most blessed words one can hear – but outside of the cash flow, it really prompts a very a solemn feeling from the utterance of such words alone.

Upon the many articles that flew across headline news on morning of Nov. 25th, revealing people being hurt in the process of others seeking to obtain that “perfect” gift for someone at the best deal they’ve ever experienced on such an item, it sincerely brought about two emotions to my heart.

<em>One of gratitude, and one of shock.</em>

Gratitude in that I didn’t opt to engage, like I never do, in Black Friday hoopla – and shock that so many would go to such measures (such as using pepper spray) to gain the upper hand over others to obtain what they wanted to get for someone else.

Really now?

Hmmm…doesn’t sound like the apple fell that far from the tree when we look more at Cain’s example of “giving.”

Exploring Chapter 4 of Genesis, we see in the beginning that Cain and Abel were given distinct gifts for their lives to work out – Cain, to work the land; Abel to tend to the flock.

Each of these brothers each had the same opportunity to serve God cheerfully, but only one opted to actually do it in faith and belief to God…and no, it wasn’t Cain who did that. He was the other guy who grumbled under his breath to God and saw his brother as competition and “God’s favorite”;  hence his decision to get him out of the picture.

This kind of mentality and behavior is oozing at its proverbial seams with the way people treat others on a Black Friday morning.

For a season abundantly laden with the theme of giving, sincerely what does ransacking a store for the best possible price on the highest-end object have anything to truly do with giving?

Matthew West and Amy Grant put out a beautiful song last year that was put on a Veggie Tale’s movie that my son absolutely adores – as does my husband and myself. The song is called, <em>“<a title="Give This Christmas Away by Matthew West &amp; Amy Grant" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2ulYpoNXC0" target="_blank">Give This Christmas Away</a>.”</em>

I deeply love this song because it captures the heart of Christmas, and the life we’re called to live in Christ year round…not just one season out of the year.
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>To give doesn’t focus on an object.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>To give doesn’t incite anger.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>To give doesn't provoke selfishness in any capacity.</em></p>
To truly give prompts our hearts to give the gift we’ve been given in Christ Jesus away in such a manner that He becomes the most desired gift anyone would want to receive into their own lives.

Can this be accomplished through the giving of a material gift? Absolutely. But it is never the material that is the focus…it is the intent of the heart of the one giving the gift.

<em><strong>This Christmas season…and the year to come, hereafter…how can you find yourselves giving in a manner that reveals Christ more than the material gift you give this year to others?</strong></em>