{"id":4802,"date":"2014-12-18T21:17:37","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T21:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?p=2613"},"modified":"2017-01-05T16:42:17","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T16:42:17","slug":"the-greatest-gift-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/the-greatest-gift-exchange.html","title":{"rendered":"The greatest gift exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"0829-leisure\"<\/a>“For the wages of sin\u00a0is\u00a0death, but the gift of God\u00a0is\u00a0eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”<\/em> (Romans 6:23 NKJV).<\/p>\n

Do you remember “leisure suits?”<\/p>\n

My grandmother Combs used to buy a suit for all her grandsons every\u00a0Christmas. She was a very smart shopper and would have most of her Christmas shopping finished for the following year’s holiday, by shopping the after-Christmas sales every year. She even kept a locked bedroom at her house that she called\u00a0the “Christmas room,” because that’s where she kept next year’s presents, most of them already wrapped.<\/p>\n

She carefully chose matching shirts, ties and socks to go with the suits and wrapped them separately, so that the ensemble was revealed in stages every Christmas. This progression was\u00a0somewhat taxing for the grandsons because we were all anxious to open the gifts that might contain toys. Plus, she invariably insisted that we take a break and try the suits\u00a0on, which always aroused sounds of young boy groanings and parental corrections.<\/p>\n

Looking back, I understand why she wanted us to try them on. Buying suits for her growing grandsons required her to make an educated guess as to their\u00a0annual growth rate. She made us try them on to see if she guessed right.<\/p>\n

I invariably disappointed her. I was a late bloomer. I don’t think I grew much at all between the ages of 9 to 14. Every year, we\u00a0had to exchange my suits because they were always too big. Then at age 15, I shot up eight inches in one year. I finally grew more than enough to wear my Christmas suit.<\/p>\n

So, that was the\u00a0year that she finally guessed right. It was also the year she decided to follow the new fashion trend of the ’70s. That year, she bought all the grandsons, polyester leisure suits (with matching wide ties and white belts of course).<\/p>\n

And my\u00a0leisure suit was yellow.<\/p>\n

Because of her previous failings, she always included\u00a0receipts, so I could exchange the suit.\u00a0But there was no need for a gift exchange that year. Not only did the suit fit perfectly, but I was ready to do some “styling and profiling,” wearing that yellow suit with a\u00a0fat tie, wide white belt, bell bottomed slacks and stacked heel shoes (Imagine the sound of BeeGees’ disco music playing in the background here).<\/p>\n

It’s fun to remember Christmases gone by, with stories of yellow leisure suits and gifts we received from our parents and grandparents. But remembering\u00a0those past Christmas times exchanging gifts that didn’t fit, reminds me that the greatest gift exchange of all has been offered by God through Christ.<\/p>\n

Christ\u00a0offers to exchange our…<\/strong><\/p>\n