People Are More Valuable Than Stuff

It’s mid-December, and many of us have been in the Christmastime atmosphere for quite some time already. We’ve decorated our homes and made our Christmas lists. We’ve connected with family and friends to set up our gift-giving groups. And now we are trying to finish buying presents.

All this indicates that lately we have been enthralled with stuff more than usual. We’ve been decorating with stuff, making lists of stuff we want, buying specific stuff for others, and even seeing more advertisements for stuff than normal. None of this is necessarily sinful, especially since it can be done well for God’s glory in celebration and love. But it does mean that it might be good for us to throw some sobering cold water onto our faces to remember that stuff merely has its place, and what a small place in the grand scheme of things it is.

For example, compare stuff to almost all other things, like God, time, family, and more. How does stuff stack up?

And this is particularly true of people. How does stuff compare to someone? During Christmastime, we might be duped into thinking that the value of stuff at least compares closely to someone. But when we’re sober minded, we recognize that such a close comparison is far from the truth.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer well expressed this point. Writing a letter to someone celebrating and receiving gifts for their thirty-fifth birthday, he counsels to remember stuff’s relative value:

“People are more important to us in life than everything else. That certainly does not mean that the world of material things and practical achievements is of less value. But what is the most beautiful book or picture or house or estate compared to my wife, my parents, my friend? Yet the only person who can speak this way is one who has really found human companionship in life. For many today, people are nothing more than part of the world of things.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 509; quoted in Tony Reinke, 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You, 151) 

He continues on to say that the man can and should celebrate his birthday. Celebration isn’t the issue; it’s a God-designed, good thing. The issue is comparison and perspective. For “what is the most beautiful book or picture or course or estate compared to my wife, my parents, my friend?”

The same is true for us and the gifts we’ll be getting this Christmas season. I for one, like most, thoroughly enjoy receiving gifts during Christmas and my birthday. I often write down for others a handful things I think I’d enjoy, and when I get them (or something unexpected I didn’t think of myself), it’s a delight—I believe a mini-picture signaling the fact that we were made for loving relationships which point to our ultimate Gift: our gift-giving God. But nevertheless, gifts can never replace people. Gifts from people we love can further our relationship in love—again, which ultimately points to our relationship with our gift-giving God. But stuffs cannot replace someones.

May we, then, this Christmas enjoy our stockings and gifts under the tree, but may we also look up and remember that people are much more valuable (not to mention, lasting) than stuff. Let it be something we ask ourselves from time to time: “What is the most beautiful book or picture [or gadget or piece of clothing or tool or product or car] or house or estate compared to my wife, my parents, my friend,” and most of all, my God?