Gifts come in all sizes – little gifts, large gifts, medium-size, and every size in-between. No matter how young or how old you are, receiving gifts is a pleasurable thing.
We learn to expect gifts early in life – birthday gifts, gifts when relatives come, gifts when someone is going away, gifts when company comes. Gifts, gifts, gifts, but the greatest time of giving is at Christmas.
I love Christmas – Christmas lights, Christmas stories, Christmas songs, Christmas trees, and most of all, the giving of Christmas gifts.
I was ten years old when I first tuned into Christmas. Back in the country-area of the island on which I was born, Christmas was just a day with a great meal. I don’t remember getting any gifts, though I may have done so. My brother remembers making kites and flying them on Christmas Day.
My first Christmas in this country was quite an awakening. My classmates were all wanting to know what others were getting for Christmas. The girls in our apartment building were asking what kind of doll was I getting for Christmas. It seemed as if they got dolls every year.
What I most remember about that Christmas in 1950 was the dollar that I received to spend for Christmas gifts. I was allowed to go to the local Woolworth Five and Ten Cent store. There I was able to buy gifts for my whole family, which consisted of my parents, two brothers and one sister at that time.
Through the years the giving of gifts has become my greatest joy at Christmas time. Even as I am writing, there is a growing pile of gifts accumulating on the floor at the foot of my bed. I keep up with friends around the country by sending boxes of Sees candy. I’m guaranteed to hear from them at least once a year.
What do I get? Joy, pure joy.
I’m sure that I have received my share of gifts also. None of the gifts I have received stand out more in my memory than the year that I received everything on my list.
I was spending Christmas with my dearest friend and her sisters. They had asked me to make a list of things that I truly wanted and Christmas morning I had received them all – a radio, a lounging robe, a lazy Susan, a fondue pot. I don’t remember what happened to the radio, but I do know that the robe, the lazy Susan, and the fondue pot all traveled with me across the continent. I said a reluctant goodbye to the robe when I moved a few years ago, and I still have parts of the Lazy Susan and the Fondue pot.
Best of all, I still have the friendship of my best friend.
The best and greatest gift of Christmas, however, was given to me and all creation one quiet night in Bethlehem, with stars for lights and angelic music for concert.
Joyfully they heralded:
“Glory to God in the Highest and on earth, peace and good will toward men” Luke 2:14 (KJV).
While one angel drew near the earth with the announcement:
“Behold I bring you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ, the Lord” Luke 2:10 (NRSV).
And the angel choir voices rang out:
“And His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” Isaiah 9:6b (KJV).
Another angel chimed in:
“Thou shalt call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins” Matthew 1:21 (KJV).
“For God so loved the world that He gave (a gift) his only begotten Son, that everyone that believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (Another gift)” John 3:16 (NRSV).
“The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” Romans 6:23b (KJV).
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” James 1:17 (NKJV).
The perfect Christmas gift. Eternal life! Everlasting life! Life forevermore!
Beth McCalla is a long-time elder here at the La Sierra University Church and finds wonder in feeding people – spiritually at Sabbath School and physically for countless church gatherings.