A Simple Gift
Last summer, Lydia gave me a paper bracelet. It is green with a few designs in marker, and she made a large paper container to store it when not in use. The container is tall and also constructed with green paper, similar to a top hat. As she gave me the gift, Lydia beamed with pride and asked if I would wear it the next day.
I fortunately have an employer who understands the vagaries of parenting, and no one flinched as I complemented my business attire with a bright green bracelet. When I picked Lydia up from school, her first question was whether I wore the gift. Her smile grew as I told her that two of the mothers in my office complemented the accoutrement. There are plenty of missteps I have made as a parent, but wearing Lydia’s bracelet was not one of them.
Her bracelet prompted a memory that has stayed with me from a sermon long ago. Our pastor told the story he read from Leonard Sweet’s A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Café. There was a blind 5-year old whose parents brought him to a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital. The surgeon had developed a new procedure that might restore their son’s eyesight. Throughout the treatment, the boy clung to his teddy bear, which was his source of comfort through the pain. Despite the odds, the surgeon healed the boy. Upon seeing the surgeon for the first time, the boy offered his teddy bear to the doctor as a gift for his great service.
It was here the pastor paused. He commented that the congregation might expect the surgeon to decline the gift. The boy cherishes the teddy bear deeply, and the doctor has no need for it. But that is not how this story ends. The boy insisted it was his way of showing thanks, so the doctor took the gift. The teddy bear went on his shelf with the placard, “This is the highest fee I have ever received for professional services rendered.”
The pastor’s thesis was that we should never deprive the gift giver the joy that accompanies giving. I imagine the text that accompanied the message was Luke 21, the parable of widow who gave two coins and received Christ’s commendation for giving not out of abundance but her poverty. It may also have been a complementary anecdote to the Christmas story and the gift of Jesus. But the theme that sticks with me is the need for humility.
I think back to way I received gifts as a child, and it was too often with impudence. I felt mistaken entitlement to my every desire. Fortunately, my parents helped me think about the time, care, and money that someone had spent on me. Even if the gift was not what I would have preferred, receiving a gift well is a way we extend love to those who are giving to us. This cannot happen without considering the giver first and foremost.
As C.S. Lewis phrased it, one who is humble “will not be thinking about himself at all.” It is easy in the busyness of life—particularly during the Christmas season—to see a swirl of paper taped together as nothing more than scraps. But thinking about the giver and the meaning behind a gift prompts a gratitude that mirrors the giver’s enthusiasm.
As much as anything else, I am writing this out of a desire to remember the hopefulness on my daughters’ faces as they offer what they can, the things most desirable to them. Lydia and Grace are pouring out their love with the resources they hold dear—color, creativity, and vibrancy. Our Christmas tree has gift bag after gift bag filled with drawings and paper constructions all awaiting Christmas morning. Even as I write these words, the girls have given me crayon sketches of a pink castle and princess, a heart, and what I assume is cubism-inspired drawing in red. While my selfish side wants to return to my book and my coffee on this chilly morning, I am pleased that at least for today, there is joy for both the giver and the receiver.
As we are just days before Christmas, my girls have been a good reminder that how we receive a gift is the source of joy for the gift giver. If the gift is dismissed, then the love is not reciprocated and the joy is lost. It is a lesson I hope to cling to both during Christmas and year round. People give gifts in many forms—be it a kind word, a smile, or in a ribbon-adorned box. And when our focus is on those around us instead of ourselves, we are in the best position to give back the joy that comes with receiving a gift well. Merry Christmas, everyone!
