LIFE-Day Tuesdays: Love Languages- GIFTS

"What is bought is cheaper than a gift."
- A Portuguese proverb

Who doesn't like a present? OK, I'm biased when writing about this because this is my dominant gift- both to give and receive. A gift is a symbol of thought. It doesn't have to cost anything- something hand-made is often worth far more than something bought. For me, I'm very much a visual person. I respond best and I express through visual signs of communication. That's why when E handed me a tiny box of earrings to replace a pair that I'd lost- I was so darn touched. No reason for a present to be given- the gift was purely a gift. Cost is irrelevant- the time, effort, thought and reason for the gift is worth so very much more.

You don't get a guy bath salts (unless he's one of those guys). You don't get a girl a soccer ball (unless she's one of those girls). In order to give someone a gift- if you're serious about it- you gotta know them somewhat. I know that for me, trying to find something for someone as a gift is so time-consuming because I'll often be standing there, umm-ing and ahh-ing about it until I give up and go make what I see in my head because stores can never get it right.

I'm guessing though, that some people might see the love language of gifts as being somewhat selfish. "What, you need to hold something in your hand to know that I love you? What, my words and actions aren't enough?" For a while, I tried to deny that my language was Gifts because I wanted a more altruistic one like Acts of Service but I cannot deny it now. I like gifts. I like presents. I like them coming from nowhere. I like them in any way, shape or form. I like the simplest stuff like a flower picked for me, a random rock that someone said reminded them of me, a card etc or at the other end of the spectrum, I like getting diamonds.

What I like best though is giving gifts. If you've ever been the recipient of a gift from me, usually you'd find that I've overexerted myself in some way to get it to you, from travelling an hour and a half on public transport in Sydney back to Bondi to pick up a notebook for a friend only to save it for the next 5 months until his actual birthday, to making my own superhero wrapping paper. I can say what I want to a person but for me- getting them something personal to them shows them that I love them. Maybe it's a thing where tangible proof is needed, where I need them to have proof (maybe it's that I'm not sure that I've gotten through because I like to joke around too much).

The reason I like Gifts so much is that for me, it encompasses all the other languages. You can get the gift of time and the gift of someones presence. You can receive gifts of words of knowledge and prophecy that are precious indeed. You can accept the gift of someone serving you- the effort is what is appreciated and not so much the outcome half the time.

There's the story of the woman and the alabaster jar of perfume- to her, giving the expensive perfume was her way of showing her love to Jesus, despite the disciples rebuking her for the perceived wastage. She knew though, that money was never a problem- not that she was loaded but that to her, it was worth it. In the end though- the language of Gifts is a faint echo of the gift that was given to all of us. Grace and the life of a guy named Jesus.