The best gift ever?
What’s the best gift you’ve ever received for Christmas?
What’s the most memorable gift you’ve given at Christmas?
An angel tops the tree
BY REV. KATIE BISHOP
The Christmas my grandmother moved out of her home into a retirement community, I received the family tree-topping angel. When I was a child, we would all gather at my grandmother's house for tree decorating and pizza. Each year, my uncle would hoist me into the air to put on the angel as my grandmother clapped. It was a gift from her parents when she got married. When I was too big to be hoisted, I hoisted others. Now it sits on the tree at our house as I hoist my daughter Eden in the air, cherishing precious moments together.
Joys shared
BY REV. TOM BRUNKOW
For me it was the first Christmas gift I can remember at age three. Toddling down the stairs I spied under the tree a Lionel train. A black steam engine with actual steam and a whistle chugged round and round pulling three or four cars behind. The awe and wonder on my face was captured for posterity in the movie my father took that magical morning. That day opened for me the joy of Christmas that has deepened over the years as I came to know the Greatest Gift.
The most memorable gift that I’ve given came 64 years later when I set up a Lionel train set under the tree of my four year old grandson. What joy I felt watching the awe and wonder in his eyes as he gazed at the little black engine with smoke and whistle circling the track pulling a tender, box car, flat car and caboose. I said a silent prayer that this too might be a day that opens for him the joy of Christmas and the Greatest Gift of all.
Impractical love
BY REV. VICKY STARNES
I have always been something of a "practical gift" person – finding the one thing the person could use, making sure I have the correct size of clothing for her, or the favorite game for him. But 40 years ago, I opened a gift on Christmas morning that was totally un-practical and I’ve never forgotten the giver or the instructions that came with it.
My brother Floyd, the baby of the family, was the giver. I’m sure he spent my mother’s money to buy it – since he was just 9 or so. The gift was a tiny music box that played the Toyland song. On the base of the music box was Raggedy Andy seated with toy blocks around him – totally un-practical.
I remember opening it and stumbling with what to say – until finally I said what I was feeling, "How cute – but what do I DO with it?"
Floyd said, "You wind it up and listen to the music and watch it spin around."
With me still in a fog, he kept going with a shy smile on his face, "When you’re old, you’ll look at it and remember this day when I gave it to you!" And so I do – still – some 40 years later, and the Raggedy Andy is my reminder – still – that not every gift has to have a purpose. After all, a gift is simply that – a gift. A gift of love, of care, of generosity, of the essence of Christmas.
Wasn’t that what the gift of Jesus was all about? Nothing practical about it – just pure, unbounded love.
What love feels like
BY LILLIE REED
Maybe it’s not the most politically correct gift today, but when I was a little girl my parents saved and bought my grandmother a mink stole for Christmas. It was extravagant. It was luxurious. It was the softest thing I had ever touched in my life.
At the midnight candlelight service and for years later each Sunday morning, I would rest my head against my grandmother’s shoulder in church. That was glory – the softness of the fur, mixed with the faint smell of her perfume, and absolute knowledge that I was loved. The gift was for her, but each time she embraced me, I learned that love can be extravagant, luxurious and a perfect place to rest your head.
New life
BY SHARON VOITH
The best gift I ever received for Christmas was just last year. I received a second chance at life … a chance to share my granddaughter’s first Christmas … and the chance to be around to watch her grow up.
Diagnosed with breast cancer on Dec. 12, 2008, I underwent a double mastectomy on Dec. 20, 2008. I wanted to be cancer free, but I didn’t want Christmas to be all about the cancer. It was my first grandchild’s first Christmas and there was nothing more important to me than that. Although I was sore, I’ve never experienced such joy or love for life. God is truly great!
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