Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Christmas Gifts (11/13/08)
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TITLE: The Greatest Gifts of Christmas | Previous Challenge Entry
By Mildred Sheldon
11/19/08 -
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. John 1:1-2
Two thousand years ago, the Roman Emperor decided to take a census of all of the people in the Roman Empire. Each family had to return to the city of their patriarch’s birth to be counted. Now Joseph, a carpenter by trade, and his wife Mary were the linage of David. They made their home in Nazareth and they had to journey to the town of Bethlehem where David was born.
Mary was expecting their first child and it was near the time for the child to be born. When they arrived, they could find no room in the inn but the innkeeper offered them the use of the stable. It came to pass that the birth for the child had come. They named the child Jesus. Emmanuel is another name of Jesus, which means God with us. Mary wrapped Jesus in swaddling clothes and laid him in the manger.
The first gifts given by man were presented to none other than Jesus. Three wise men from afar had seen the star announcing the birth of Jesus, the son of God, and they followed it to where the child was. They presented him with three gifts. The gifts were frankincense, an aromatic gum or resin used as incense, especially in religious ceremonies, and in perfumes. Another was myrrh, an aromatic resinous gum obtained from various trees and bushes that are native to Africa and southern Asia. Myrrh is used in perfume, incense and medicinal preparations. The last gift was gold a soft, heavy, corrosion-resistant, yellow metallic element that is highly valued. That was the first and greatest Christmas.
I recall one Christmas with such fondness that I still chuckle about one gift I received from my husband. I don’t know how many of you love to shake your gifts but I am a shaker. My husband along with our children decided they would give me a gift that I could shake and of course, I would pick up that gift and shake it until it just about came unwrapped. It made all kind of noise and I was assured that the gift would not be damaged no matter how much I shook it. Well, the day came I picked up that huge box and shook it one more time before I opened it. Inside my beloved husband and children had placed several Styrofoam Christmas balls, bells and we mustn’t forget marbles as well as some scrunched up newspapers just to fill the box. With all the balls, bells and marbles that box was a shakers delight.
I painstakingly removed everything in that box and could not find my gift. I slowly went back through each piece of paper and still could not find the gift. My husband and children were practically rolling on the floor watching me search for my gift. Finally, my precious husband, who at that time I could have choked, relented and slowly removed the false bottom from the box. There taped to the bottom of the cardboard was my gift, a beautiful ring. Of all the gifts, I received that Christmas that one gift made that Christmas so memorable and truly enjoyable.
No matter how many gifts I give or receive for Christmas the greatest gift any of us has received was the birth of Jesus. He came into the world as an innocent child to save man from his sinfulness. A gift of that magnitude has no equal and I humbly bow on bended knee praising God the Father and thanking Him for loving us so much that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
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