The Best Christmas Gift
It’s 8:30 on Christmas morning.
Many presents have already been given and received by now…especially by excited children around the world. Some were expensive, some were not. Many were store bought. Some are handmade. Others are basic food items or clothing hard to come by in normal times.
So what’s the best gift you ever received…or you ever gave?
For each of us, it will likely be a bit different.
For the baby Jesus, many would think that the three containers from the wise men were the best.
I would respectfully disagree with that.
I think the best gift those wise men shared with the baby and his family was not going to the angry King and telling him where the baby was. As far as we know, it cost the wise men nothing to make that choice, but it had a powerful impact on the lives of the world then and now.
Consider it a gift that keeps on giving.
I think of a bag of bows when I think of best Christmas gifts.
That was our little Scott’s favorite 2nd Christmas present. Scott had a rare bone disease and lived to celebrate only two Christmas seasons. We discovered his love of bows when someone else was celebrating and a few bows were tossed over Scott’s way. His eyes lit up, he held one close to his face to examine it, and he would throw one as he giggled. We tossed it back at him where he would pick it up, look at it inquisitively, cut his eyes over to anyone who would give him attention and – with a smile – throw it again.
You can imagine what he thought of a whole bag of bows. It was bow heaven for him!
I still want to toss bows when I see them – even 21 years later.
Another best Christmas gift I witnessed was the year my husband gave our other son a train set. They spent hours building and rebuilding that set. My 23 year old son still mentions that train set even today. The real gift there was that he and his father were able to spend hours of together time, on the floor working and playing…laughing together… making memories together…a real gift since his father died when he was six.
When I think of the best Christmas gifts, I think of the joy of Christmas day when you are with family. It quite often seems that all the imperfections of relationships within a family are “overlooked” at Christmas…if only for a brief moment. That is, indeed, a true gift for many of us who do not live in “perfect” families.
When I think of other best Christmas gifts, I think of a good friend who took time from his busy Christmas Eve schedule last night to drive me and his mother around for hours looking at lights and catching a late night meal at one of the few places open along the interstate.
And I thought I knew all “the” places Christmas lights were in Columbia. I still am not sure were we were. We would ride for miles in darkness and suddenly find ourselves in a myriad of lights.
A friend did this, you say? No, really more like family because this gesture is what family is all about. Many thanks to that special friend. He knows who he is. This will be one of my “best Christmas gifts.”
Best Christmas gifts are also those random acts of kindness that seem to happen unexpectedly. Often you may not even know where the gift came from. An acquaintance who was down on her luck told me of it recently. She was behind on her mortgage payment because she lost her job unexpectedly five months before. She was able to make the payments from savings for all the months before but had run out of money before her new job started. Someone knew her bank and went in, paid her mortgage anonymously, and had the bank call her with the news.
She still doesn’t know who did that. Now, she suspects many of her friends did, because most of them have the demeanor of random acts of kindness. Whenever she can, she now looks for ways to do the same thing for others.
Wouldn’t it be great if all of us had that kind of spirit in us?
Then there are the best Christmas gifts that some of us don’t even know we get. For instance, the gift of safety that our military men and women are sharing with us right now so we can have a peaceful holiday.
Yes, we all have our favorite Christmas gift stories.
My wish for you today is that you take time to talk about “best Christmas gifts” stories with your family and friends as you celebrate this special season. You just might be surprised to hear what others have to say. If you don’t have a best Christmas gift story – my wish for you today is that you – make one of your own by practicing random acts of kindness starting today and throughout the year.
~ Joellen