Previous Reflections
REFLECTIONS
December 20, 2009
they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Matthew 2:11NKJV
Gift from the Heart
“This is the best gift I’ve ever received,” Mom said to me. She sat on the sofa in my grandparent’s living room where we traditionally opened gifts on Christmas Eve. I sat on the floor near her feet watching as she opened my gift to her. I felt a little ashamed because it seemed so small to me. I wanted it to be more than it was. To make it look more important, I wrapped it in an empty Kleenex box, placed my gift inside, and stuffed the box with paper so it wouldn’t jiggle. Then I wrapped it. My gift was only a Christmas card signed with “I love you.” I just couldn’t think of anything else to give.
In previous years Daddy had purchased the gift for me to give Mom. At ten-years old, I felt grown enough to buy her gift myself, so I told him that I would take care of it. I thought I could find something nice, but as Christmas drew near, the pressure to find just the right thing began to mount. Time ran out and a card was the only thing that came to mind. It wasn’t lavish, but I knew it was a gift from my heart. Mom knew it too.
I wonder if those first Christmas gifts from the Magi were chosen because nothing else came to mind. After all gold, frankincense, and myrrh do not seem like gifts for a baby, even a baby king. While their gifts were lavish for the time, they may have felt them small when they gazed upon the newborn king. But large or small, there is little doubt that their gifts came from their hearts.
But the gift I gave to Mom and the gifts Magi brought to the Christ child do not compare to the gift we received on that first Christmas Day. It was a baby—magnificent in simplicity, breathtaking in majesty, and incomprehensible in nature. God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son[1]. He gave us the Light of the world. Through his gift we have life everlasting. It was a gift from the heart of God.
And it is the best gift we’ve ever received.
Merry Christmas,
RichardÌ
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