The Best Gift I ever Received

The Christmas Season is always a mixed bag of emotions for me. We say Jesus is the reason for the season, but truth be told, He is the reason for all seasons. He doesn’t just pop up on Christmas Day in a wrapped gift under the tree. But on the other hand, He could pop up at a cookie exchange. He’s been known to show up at the oddest places if we look for Him.

This time of year means depression for some and additional debt for others. It can be the busiest time in our homes, baking, entertaining and sharing love with family and friends. For others it’s being alone.

My daughter insisted I go to one of the Christmas parties she’d been invited to.  I dug in my heels and said, “I don’t want to go. Why do I have to make cookies? Can I go without cookies?” I finally gave in and went with four dozens cookies. I’m glad I did.

The delightful hostess asked us to remember the best present we ever received at Christmas. She thought we would say “Jesus.” I missed her point, and others did, too.

I thought of the most important gift that I ever received. It was Christmas of 1954. I was thirteen. My folks struggled financially and that Christmas my two brothers and I woke up to an empty tree without gifts.

And yet, when asked about the best present I ever received I went back to 1954. In the limbs of our tree was a small box. Inside was a used gold Elgin watch with a scratch across its face. I don’t remember if my brothers received a gift. I only remember the gift I received and how disappointed I was.

I hurt my folks because of my ungratefulness. They forgave me. My mother explained how my dad pawned his shotgun and traded it for the watch. She said it was the best he could give me. It was a sacrifice for my dad. He loved to go duck and pheasant hunting with that shotgun. I never thanked him. I was too self-indulgent at the time.

In August of the following year, my Dad died suddenly of a heart attack. My mother, a widow at thirty-six with three young children, who never worked outside the home before, went to work to support us.

Our family was turned upside down. My mother sacrificed to keep us together, fed and clothed. I didn’t see until years later at a cookie exchange how much my parents had done for us. They really did give us the best they had to give.

The season and trouble at hand always seem to overshadow the gift God gave to us in His Son, Jesus. I picture the angels in heaven peering down over the side of the little baby’s crib in wonderment. How could God redeem this hurting world from its pain in an innocent baby?

The baby grew up, climbed Calvary, and hung on the limbs of a tree. He sacrificed His life for us. Scars across his face, beaten and unrecognizable, Christ was the greatest gift His Father ever gave.

The night before his death, Jesus reminded us, “Fear not, rejoice and be of good courage…. These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." John 16:33 NAS

Today, the watch my dad gave to me years ago is somewhere mixed among my other jewelry, forgotten. I hadn’t thought about it for years until a beautiful hostess asked us to name the most precious gift we ever received.

It wasn’t the scratched face of a used watch I received that year, it was the sacrifice of someone who loved me. It was God’s faithfulness to show me the sacrifice of my parents.

This time of the year, the most precious gift we ever receive could be mixed in among all the other things in our busy lives. It could be discarded without even a thank you, left in the shadow of the bright lights, noise, parties and all the gift giving.

Final Brushstroke: I carried away from the cookie exchange more than a platter of cookies. I carried away the spirit of Christmas seen through the heart of the hostess. Thank you Jesus for the gift of salvation. May we never forget to thank you.