Our White Elephants

Every year I manage to participate in a White Elephant gift exchange, usually at a Christmas party.  I have never once heard anyone explain to me why exactly we call this a White Elephant exchange.  Perhaps that is the reason for the dozens of different ways I have played the game.  No one really knows the point to begin with.

The term is derived from the sacred white elephants that were kept by monarchs in Asia.  To receive a white elephant as a gift from a monarch was considered a curse because the animal had to be retained but could not be put to much practical use.  To give a white elephant gift is to give a gift that is in actuality a curse to the recipient because he will be able to find no practical use for it.

It has occurred to me that Christmas in general is often one big white elephant gift exchange.  Decency demands that a gift be sent and if we are to be perfectly honest we would have to admit that many of the gifts we receive take their ranks among the white elephants.  I must admit it is difficult buying a beautiful book that I have a hunch will be adored but eternally unread.

In our individual lives, we must be cautious of turning the truths that we have learned from our parents, our churches, and our bibles into white elephants.  I have had friends who have done well by all appearances.  They are at home at a party; their wives think there is noone like them; their peers are excited at their appearance.  But that is as far as it goes.  You may never see them serving in church; they are doing little work for which the world will remember them when they are gone; and, as far as you can tell, they are laying up few treasures for themselves in the invisible world.  I can imagine one of these guys sitting on the lap of his mother and listening to her tell him about the story of Jesus.  His innocent heart easily responds to the wonders of the story and as he grows up he regurlarly receives deposits of biblical truth.  But at some point along the journey he stopped making use of it and his faith has become a white elephant.  It is like the old family Bible under the coffee table – very precious, but rarely used.