On Wednesday, we address Santa Claus on the table today, gift-giving.

Here's the email.

Hi, Pastor John.

My name is Caitlin.

My family and I love listening to all of your sermons and appreciate the way you proclaim

Christ's name.

Thank you.

My question is this.

We seek to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas and to not make it so much about

the gifts.

I have two questions for you.

Number one is gift-giving biblical and number two is there a better way to do it?

The short answer is yes.

Gift-giving is biblical and yes, there is probably a better way to do it since nothing

we do is perfect and there's always a better way to do it.

It's good.

It's good to ask what aspects of our giving and getting our giving patterns are merely

cultural and what are shaped by Christ to magnify Christ.

So what I thought might be helpful is to just develop a short theology of gift-giving

at Christmas by weaving together some of the biblical passages, three steps from God's

giving to us, to our giving to Christ, to our giving to each other and to those in need.

So I think it will be helpful just to step back and get the biblical perspective on these

...