Bottom Drawer

by Adrian Plass

I knew a man who enraged and frustrated his family by postponing opening his Christmas presents for days or weeks after the event. It drove his wife and children wild. Quite late in life he learned the reason for this strange behaviour. A hidden memory surfaced. As a small boy he’d always wanted a watch.

One Christmas his mother, a strange, rather cruel person, promised to grant his wish. However, on Christmas morning she flew into a rage for some trivial reason and threw the brightly wrapped present in her son’s direction.

It missed him but hit the wall and fell to the floor. When he finally unwrapped his gift the watch was smashed to pieces.

Sounds too neat to be true, but that’s why he’d become reluctant to open presents.

I’m not as bad as that, but in the past I’ve had a tendency to enshrine my presents instead of using and enjoying them. Why, I’m not sure, except that the dread of decay and failure has always been a part of my life-view. Until recently, I had a drawer upstairs where I’d bury gifts once I’d unwrapped them. There in the darkness they sat, uncorrupted and unused until the indignant protests of the givers forced me to get them out and do something with them.

One of God’s gifts to men is the Sabbath, a day of rest. The Christian church has been arguing about how to use it ever since. All I know is what Jesus said. The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

I don’t know if God gets as annoyed over our misuse of the Sabbath as my children did over me shoving their gifts in my drawer, but the principle’s the same. The Pharisees, then - and now, I’m afraid - have enshrined a gift from God that was supposed to be used, not only for praise and worship, but for refreshment and relaxation after a long week.

They’ve turned it into something not far removed from an idol. How silly! Come on, all of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus, let’s get this and all of God’s other good, practical gifts out of the drawer and make him happy by enjoying them.