Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Christmas Gifts (11/13/08)
-
TITLE: Second Best Gift | Previous Challenge Entry
By Margaret Gass
11/16/08 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
As a single mother, Mom tried hard to do a little extra at Christmas. Most of our gifts were items that we needed, like socks, underwear, and sweaters, but she always made sure we had one “big” gift that was for fun. That big gift was always opened last. It was also the first gift that we touched as soon as she put presents under the tree, in spite of her “DO NOT TOUCH!” warnings, so she hid our big gifts well. (In 1972, she hid our big gifts so well that my sister and I opened fancy winter coats in July!) As we got older, she turned instead to creative packaging, in part because our budget didn’t allow for her memory to fail.
She wrapped boxes inside boxes and weighted those boxes with rocks. She wanted clothes to sound like games, and games to sound like books. One Christmas, we all got canned--a charity group at the mall placed wrapped gifts inside decorated cans of all sizes--and though it made guessing more difficult, it also made for an exhausting morning, as we didn’t have a “comfort grip” can opener! Today’s gift bags are a double blessing, because they can disguise the hard-to-wrap gifts, and be re-used. Some years the bag is as special as what it contains, and we make sure to pass these back and forth among family.
As I think about the gifts themselves, only a few stand out: my first stereo, my sister’s bike, and the first gifts I bought Mom with my own money. I am known for what Mom politely calls “unusual” gifts…she means “practical, homemade, or downright strange.” One year I gave Mom a stepladder that doubles as a stool because she kept saying she needed one once my step-dad died. And though she teased me about it then, she uses it constantly and thanks me for it every Christmas as she tells her friends about her “unusual” eldest daughter’s gift ideas. I prefer the term “thoughtful,” and will continue to give such gifts, because I actually believe it’s the “thought that counts.”
Christmas is about love and giving to others. I learned about both of these concepts from my mom, who to this day remains a generous giver. But there is more to Christmas than what Mom gave me. For her, the emphasis is on “spirit of Santa” inside all of us, measured by the giving of presents. I learned long ago that Christmas isn’t really about presents, it’s about Jesus, and His presence in our lives. I knew that the greatest gift ever given was the gift of Jesus, but I didn’t really understand how great a gift it was until 1989.
In March 1989, I learned that I was pregnant with my first child, due in mid-December. Filled with both anticipation and anxiety, I read everything I could about pregnancy and childcare. I poured over my Bible, too, scanning the Scriptures for references to parenting and reading the Christmas story. When I was still pregnant two weeks after my due-date, I found myself living the Christmas story in a way I never imagined: when we arrived at the hospital on Christmas Eve, there were no rooms to be had. I was on a bed in the hallway before someone wheeled me into a supply closet. I eventually got a room, and I gave birth to a son, Matthew, whose name means, “Gift of God.” Then, and only then, did I understand what Love gave that first Christmas night. After Jesus, my son is my favorite Christmas gift, one that I get to enjoy and learn from every day.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
