What is the True Best Gift of Christmas?
Mustard Seed Chronicles: Story Time with LU Grandma
I know what a lot of folks might think of this title. In my younger years, I would have thought about which was my best Christmas present under the tree. Or wondering if the presents I had bought would be appreciated as I had hoped. Now sitting and thinking about this sentence, I’m trying to remember the best Christmas present I ever received from family or friends and I am really struggling with that. Do I still even have one of them?
The merchandisers in our media would like us to have the latest car with a bow on it, a new huge truck, new huge TVs, or very expensive jewelry. And they design advertisements to show us what children should have by way of the latest electronics, toys, and games.
When my boys were young, they wanted the latest toys. In those days, it was GI Joe and Star Wars. Years later, now that they have children of their own, they do not have any of those toys that we bought for them. Toys are fleeting. One year I recall in particular, we bought them an outdoor hockey net and rollerblades. They thought that was wonderful! Now that they are dads and have children of their own, they neither have the net nor the rollerblades and probably should not be putting rollerblades on now anyway, because they haven’t been on them for 30 years or so.
The gifts may not be around, but what I do have are plenty of memories. Some of the sweetest memories happened one year when our oldest son was in the hospital fighting for his young life. Our neighbors got together and bought presents for our three boys, for my husband, and for me. They also bought a Christmas tree and put that up for us. Those items were precious gifts at the time, and yet those have faded into oblivion. I also remember for that time in the hospital, God saved my son’s life with the Christmas carol, Silent Night!
Other Christmas memories are about going to church with my family when I was growing up, singing the carols, and hearing the “Christmas story”. It was so much fun for us to go up into our woods and cut our Christmas tree each year especially since we did it on our birthday (for my twin sister and me)! Even in the midst of all of the family time, Christmas carols and Christmas story, I didn’t understand that the precious gift Jesus gave on that night was meant for me not just “everybody.” The year I finally came to understand how that precious costly gift was meant for me, I trusted Jesus as Savior and Lord of my life! In that, Christmas became something very different than it had been in the past. It was no longer about anything material but instead became everything extravagantly Spiritual.
We, parents, want our children to have a great Christmas. My prayer for all of us this Christmas, with all the negative things that are going on in our country, is that we would celebrate the real perfect gift of Christmas. The sinless, precious, creator, and sustainer Emmanuel. He willingly took on flesh as a baby to live among us, and to give His very life blood to pay the price for our sins that we should have to pay. Jesus is the Christmas gift that we should never forget!
No matter what gifts are under the tree on December 25, if you have a tree or not, we can still rejoice and celebrate Christmas. I pray yours is a joyful, prayerful celebration!
Timi Plyter
“LU Grandma”
Lead Parent Advocate
