Pastor's Corner: Christmas gifts - Simplified and sanctified

One of the hardest parts of Christmas for me-and maybe for you-is the gift-giving. My husband is a gift-giving pro, while I am scrambling on Christmas Eve to wrap the last box of Girl Scout cookies, forgotten for months behind the rice and pasta, and pass it off as, "Look, dear, I got these Thin Mints just for you!" My dad, my aunt, my brother...all were or are gift-giving geniuses. (Yes, that past tense and the fact that loved ones are no longer here with us is THE hardest part of Christmas, but that's for another article for another year.) Some years, I feel like a gift-giving failure.

For m...