On my way to work last week, I heard a warm story about a special Christmas gift.
To make a long story short, a wife who never knew what to get her husband for Christmas donated some items to a group of inner-city children who had very little. She wrote it in the form of a letter and put it on their Christmas tree. The gift lit up her husband just as much as the lights illuminated the tree.
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| “Adoration of the Shepherds” by Gerard van Honthorst, 1622 (Wikipedia) |
This story made me examine my own gift giving and receiving. Most of us are able to buy whatever we want –within reason–throughout the year. That’s why we scramble around like crazy people trying to get the perfect gift for friends and family.
Wouldn’t giving to those really in need be much more meaningful to us–and to Jesus? Isn’t He the ultimate gift to us all? What more do we need than a savior?
Next year, I may just adopt this new gift-giving approach. And ask for the same gift for myself.
Merry Christmas!
“And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.” – Matthew 2:11
That sounds like a great thing to do. One year Roy brought home a small catalog that had suggestions of gift one could "order" for someone in a third world country; chickens, goats, etc. He said that's what he wanted for Christmas. We got him a goat that someone in another country is enjoying. I also would like to do something local. Thanks for jogging my memory.