The Return Season
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president
The return season is upon us. It is the season that happens right after Christmas Day.
People line up at different stores around the city to return items that, for some reason, just didn’t meet their fancy. They may have been the wrong color, the wrong size, or, frankly, just the wrong gifts. Most of us don’t really think about what happens to the returned items. We assume that the store will just put them back on the market and someone else will purchase them.
Frankly, it rarely happens quite that way. It is estimated that 1% of the gross domestic product of the United States is in returned merchandise. That is more than the gross domestic product of many countries in the world.
So, what happens to these items? Some are just thrown away by the store because the restocking cost may be worth more than the items themselves. Many of them go to secondary stores, which purchase them in hopes of reselling them and making a small profit. Interestingly, some items purchased from the internet simply get refunded and don’t even need to be returned.
I don’t like to stand in line to return items.
In fact, my wife will tell you that I don’t like to return items at all. I don’t like to feel that I am rejecting the person who gave the gift. If I purchased something myself, I feel okay returning it if it didn’t work out. For some reason, though, I don’t like returning gifts.
There are some things that God does not want returned.
His gift, given when He came to this earth as a baby to live among us, ultimately to die for us and miraculously rise again for us, is a gift that Jesus wants us all to accept. This is the gift given to be cherished for all eternity. It is also a gift we can tell others about so they, too, can receive it. This Christmas season, please ponder the most precious gift of Jesus and share it with someone.
Interestingly, God has something that He does want returned.
He asks all His followers to return to Him a tithe (10%) of the income that He provides to help in the ministry of sharing the good news of Jesus. As we all come to the end of the year, please review your own returns with God, and let us all return all the tithes into the storehouse.
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