Can We Open Our Presents Yet?
THIS is the time of the Christmas season that as a young girl I begin to moan..."Can we open our presents? Please, just one?" My parents denied this request over and over again until Christmas Eve. Their rule was that we could open only one gift on Christmas Eve; and unfortunately Mama got to decide which gift!! As I child I hated this rule as I wanted to decide which gift I would open! I think my children felt the same way as we continued the same tradition...and still do!
Over 35 years ago, on Christmas Eve I was cooking special bread for friends. I had been cooking all day long. I was making cream cheese braids and it was a process of mixing, rising, filling, baking, waiting and then drizzling icing. I was bone tired as we had prepared over 30 loaves of bread that day. I had on my soiled apron, my face was flour-tinged, my hair was falling out of my pony tail, I had no makeup on and was ready to collapse. It was around 6 p.m. when my boyfriend, who had helped me all day, told me that I could open one present on Christmas Eve. Suddenly, I wasn't so tired any longer.
We entered his little den where a small Christmas tree waited with a few gifts underneath. There was this very small ring-shaped box that I wanted to open! As I looked at Ray with hopeful eyes, he simply shook his head and handed me another thin, shirt-sized box to open. Again, I was denied what I wanted. I took the gift Ray handed me and with hidden disappointment I began to unwrap the gift. My mind was filled with thoughts of the years I had longed for a ring from this man; the one I loved and hoped to marry. But, it was not to be on this night. Chin up, I thought! You must act pleased. I unwrapped the box to find long white gloves...the type my mother wore in church in the 1950's. I was stunned and really had no great exclamations of excitement. "Oh, how nice I stumbled." Ray, not to be deterred, hardly noticed. He encouraged me to try them on so I slipped the right glove on..."it's pretty," I stammered. Upon Ray's urging I continued to the other glove. As I slipped it on my hand I felt something in the finger of the left hand. What??? As I hurriedly removed the glove, there lay a perfect diamond ring. As I looked at Ray, he simply said, "Will you?"
My heart hammered in my chest and burned with love for him, our future, the love he offered me. The gift I wanted to open was not the one that was best for me that night.
This Christmas, we will be receiving many gifts from those we love but there is ONE gift that is the very best for you and me. It's the One we must open to receive all the love offered. His gift for us awaits us. Let's not let the ONE gift lie unopened on Christmas morning. For that's the nature of gifts, we must open them up and receive them. Surely our hearts will hammer and burn like never before. This gift of love is like no other.
Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, "Were not our hears burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" Luke 24:31
