Saturday, March 23, 2013

The Greatest Christmas Gift

here's my convention story for all of you who wanted to read it!
The Greatest Christmas Gift

It was the beginning of December in Nashwauk, Minnesota and the snow was falling in giant, fluffy flakes.  School had just ended a few hours before and sixteen-year-old Annie Holt was sitting at the kitchen table trying to finish her stack of homework.  Finally, after a boring hour and a half of geometry, she gladly slammed the book shut and stared out the window at the beauty of the cold, white world.  How she longed to skip ahead past the next two weeks of program practice and exams and jump into Christmas where all the joy and festivities existed, but for now she was stuck in reality. All she could do was dream of the beautiful, black leather jacket that she saw at the mall.  She couldn’t wait to rip open the shiny red paper on Christmas Eve and put on the jacket that she had dreamed of for three long months.

            Christmas vacation came a whole lot faster than Annie thought it would, but she didn’t mind at all.  In fact, she was so excited that she could hardly sleep.  With the next day being Christmas Eve, Annie had lots of festivities to anticipate.  Sleep was definitely a must!

            “Come on, sleepy-head.  We can’t sleep the holidays away!”  Annie shook her nineteen-year-old brother who loved to sleep in.  She couldn’t understand how someone could sleep in when the world outside was being covered in a blanket of soft, white snow and the long awaited day of opening presents was finally here.

            Supper time came and the delicious feast was spread before them.  After prayer, they all eagerly dug into each dish and the delightful meal was finished in no time.  The cleanup was done rather quickly and then the special moment of the gift giving arrived.

            As the Holt family gathered around the fireplace, Brad began to read the Christmas story from Luke 2, a wonderful family tradition that had been going since the children were young.  Even though Annie loved the Christmas story, she found it hard to keep her attention in the right place.  The story seemed to last forever, but finally the moment arrived.  As she tore through the paper, pictures of her school friends exclaiming over her beautiful jacket flashed through her mind, but when she pulled back the last piece of paper, her smile faded and her heart sank.  There, in the lovely red paper, was a backpack, not the jacket.  Her mind raced for words to express some gratitude to her parents for the useful gift they had given, but she couldn’t find any.  All she could do was whisper a thank you, even though she didn’t really mean it.

            After all the paper was thrown in the trash and Brad and Annie had gone to their rooms, Mr. and Mrs. Holt held a small conference to decide what to do with their disappointed daughter.  Here they had tried to get something that would be useful instead of some more stuff, but instead of it making her happy, it caused her to go into a deep hole, one that she hid in when she didn’t know how to respond to a situation.   Finally, Mr. Holt came up with an idea!

            The following morning was Christmas day and the entire family decided to sleep in, all that is, but Mr. Holt.  He had made up his mind that he would run to town that holiday morning to pick up the jacket for a Christmas day gift for his daughter.  After checking in on both of his children, he jumped in his pickup and headed for town.

            At eight thirty, an hour after Mr. Holt had left, the phone rang.  Surprised that they were receiving a call that early on a holiday morning, Mrs. Holt picked it up with great anticipation, only to find out that her husband had been in an accident.  He had been hit by a salt truck in an intersection and died immediately. 

            The family got ready as fast as they could and rushed to the hospital where their father and husband had been taken.  Full of sadness, they stared at the body that lay limp on the stretcher.  With their arms wrapped around each other, they cried for hours.  Their Christmas, that they had anticipated for so long, brought change that none of them wanted to admit, especially Annie.

            All she could do was picture her father sitting on their soft carpet, the night before, with a twinkle in his eyes as he handed the beautifully wrapped gift to her.  How could she have been upset with him?  Why did she complain about not getting the leather jacket instead of being content with the backpack that she was given?  Instead of worrying about herself and the presents, she should have enjoyed being with her family.  Now that chance was gone and she would never have it again.

            Later, as she sat on her bed and stared out the window, she tried to comprehend the love that her father had for her.  He loved her so much that he got up that morning to go buy her the jacket that she had been dreaming of for months.  In some ways it was as if her father had given his life for her.  Then it hit her-the real meaning of Christmas!  God loved the world so much that He sent His very own, precious Son to earth, a crummy place where sin exists.  Jesus was willing to come and die for her sin so that she could have everlasting life.

            Ever since the accident that cold, winter day, Annie looks at Christmas in a different way.  It’s not about receiving gifts and eating special food, but about the most sacrificial gift of all, Jesus coming to earth.  Just like Annie’s father gave his life for a gift for her, Jesus gave His life as a gift for the world.