The Gift

Once, years ago, when we were living in California, our home was burglarized. It was bad enough to come home to the shock of knowing someone had been inside your house and that the electronics and jewelry were gone, but the worst was-- all the presents under the Christmas tree were stolen!! My children were traumatized for months afterwards. Truth be told, one or two of them still haven't quite gotten over it.

This photo is of a gift I received from one of my students last year. It was the one-and-only gift I received from a student that semester, but it was enough. Even one small gesture of appreciation lifted my spirits and made me feel like I had perhaps made a difference in at least one person's life.

I've received many gifts in my life so far, hundreds probably: diamond bracelets, gold earrings, new cars (ok, back off--my dad was a car dealer), Caribbean vacations, not to mention cold, hard cash. But nothing says "I love you" like a wet, sloppy kiss from a chubby-cheeked toddler or a fistful of half-crushed daisies picked from your own garden offered by a smiling mud-encased 10-year-old boy.

Those burglars who made off with our Christmas gifts ended up with some gifts they could not use and had no meaning at all to them--the small handprints of a preschooler pressed carefully into clay, crayoned artwork of stick-legged mommies and daddies, and boxes of See's chocolates meant for my kids' classroom teachers.

I love Christmas, who doesn't? The season brings out the best--but also the worst, and sometimes the pressure of gift-giving gets to me. In the midst of our well-meaning, frenzied, often over-the-top buying sprees, there is a reason why we started it all in the first place, and here it is:

God Himself gave the greatest gift of all time to the human race: His one-and-only, Jesus Christ. "Christ-mas". It makes sense.

This week I'm in the middle of the fray and will put the finishing touches on the gifts I'm giving to my most treasured 'possessions': my precious family and dear friends. But in the back of my mind I will try to remember that the most meaningful gifts are ones that have no earthly price tag and cannot be stolen away.

And that spells I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U.

"Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" 2 Corinthians 9:15

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal." Matthew 6:19-20