I did a thing today. I went to the mall on December 22.

I don’t like to go to the mall on September 22, so this was not an act of pleasure. I went to the mall (with all 4 billion other crazies) to wrap gifts for our area homeless ministry. There, next to Santa and Victoria Secret, I stood for 2.5 half hours wrapping all the things.

I don’t regret this decision. I LOVE to wrap presents. I enjoy wrapping way more than shopping. And there are so many people that hate to wrap gifts, so this is a super easy way for me to help raise money for a cause I love, while doing something that I really enjoy. Except for the people. All the freaking people.

Here is what I learned today:

• Chanel no 5 is really popular
• grandmothers love to spoil their grandkids
• watching men write gift tags for those they love is precious
• a good nickname is still sacred

With each customer, I learned a story. There was the teenager that was shopping for his grandmother – precious. The dad who brought his two pre-teen boys to buy gifts for his their mom. The mom and aunt that were quickly getting the gift wrapped before the teenage son came back from the store. With each new family, there was an energy of excitement. I discovered in this experiment that people long to bring joy to those they love.

Be it through a new speaker set or a sweatshirt, the hope of each giver was to see the smile on the face of the receiver. Not once did anyone complain about the crowd. There was no mention of the lines. There was not even irritated frustration with parking. I’m sure all of these things took place, but in my line, after the perfect gift had been purchased, there was joy.

So here is your instruction for the coming days: no matter the gift, no mater the fit, no matter the color, no matter the quality, give the one that gave you that gift the joy of your smile. They are giving you that gift out of love and excitement and the very least that we can do is to show them how grateful we are that they braved the mall or ordered early on Amazon for us. May your fuzzy socks and fruitcakes bring about all of the joy of the Lord.