Do you really need any new items in your house? If you did Marie Kondo wouldn’t be so wealthy:)
I bet if you do need something it is obscure, like how I would dearly like a new small frying pan without a warped bottom on it. What I mean is if anything new needs to come into your home it is likely something only people you share a kitchen with will be able to guess. Odds are whatever the people in your life need is similar, so quotidian and simple you would never ask someone else to buy it for you, like I can buy my own little pan.
Jesus told a wealthy young man once that he should get rid of his stuff because it was soul killing. As rich as that person was you with your digital device and ability to read this are far wealthier—and if you are remotely average you have plenty of stuff to get rid of. If the stuff (there really is no other word for the accumulation that fills out homes, closets, garages, storage units…) was bad for that young man’s soul imagine what our piles mean for our souls. It takes our time and energy, it distracts us from matters worthy of our attention and care, it weighs us down. You don’t want to distract others and lead them away from the good life Jesus knows we are all meant for and you don’t want others doing that to you. Consider giving people gifts of food or consumables, experiences (tickets etc) instead of literally hurting their souls by adding to their hoards.
James Clear, who wrote Atomic habits said, “my goal is not to reduce life to the fewest amount of things” not very Jesus-like but keep reading, “but to fill it with the optimal amount of things.” What does optimal gift-giving look like? Can we agree to focus on and optimal advent? Can we spare ourselves—and others—the time at the mall (or wherever you shop), the bills, the clutter, and the inevitable trips to the donation centre where we drop all the stuff when it is no longer wanted (which was often immediately but we were too polite to say it)?
I sincerely hope so.
The planet needs us to.
Our souls need us to.
Jesus would have us do.
Now I got to go buy that pan so I can wrap it and put it under my tree:)
Christian Spirituality 