The Greatest Gift is Still Love

The street light wasn’t the only thing all aglow that night all those years ago. My childlike heart was, too. I missed my favorite Christmas shows that year but received something better.  I would have never thought it could have been possible. 

Every year as a child, I waited impatiently to watch my favorite Christmas shows. When I was growing up,  there were no DVD players, streaming apps, or cable, so I was given only one chance each year to watch them.  If I missed them the night they aired on TV, I had to wait 365 days for another chance. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and the Little Drummer Boy all went to live at the North Pole with Santa once Christmas was over in my mind. We’ve laughed about that a couple of times. I even tried to fake being sick to miss church if they came on during a church night. To a child, life can be so simple. Not so much for moms and dads. 

That year was challenging and heartbreaking for my mom. My grandfather was battling lung cancer, which had gotten worse around the holidays. My mom was staying almost night and day at the hospital, wanting to be with her dad till his last moment on earth. That year, all the festivities of Christmas had gotten pushed aside with most of the Christmas shopping. Mom had been too busy with more important things that couldn’t wait. 

So, on the evening of Christmas Eve, Mom found a store open and ran in to find some last-minute gifts for my brother and me. Dad pulled under a street light while we waited on Mom.  Then he pulled out a surprise just for me—a big, colorful picture book of none other than Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I can still see the light all aglow and the snowflakes gently falling.  I can almost feel the pages and hear my dad’s voice as we cuddled together and Dad read every word. 

There were many lessons I learned from that night so long ago.  I knew that in a split moment, all the hardness could go away, even for a little while; just like that, God can interject such joy amid the most challenging seasons. 

I also learned what love looks and feels like that Christmas. It is more than Christmas shows, parties, and plays. More than tinsel, wrapped up gifts under a tree, and even the holiday songs playing on the radio. More than the movies and Christmas shows we watch each season. Christmas is so much more. 

Christmas is about love way down in a heart. It is that feeling of wanting to do something kind for someone else. The joy that comes from putting others before yourself and putting what you wish aside for what the other person needs. It is about getting more joy from watching the joy on someone else’s face than feeling it on your own. It is also about being present in the other person’s hour of need. 

Mom taught me that year that sometimes you put others first. Dad taught me sometimes others will put me first. I also learned that God is the author of both. He tells us such in James 1:17 (KJV) “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow of turning.” Every perfect gift is given with love.  And that kind of gift, my friend, comes from the very heart of God.  

Yes, my heart was all aglow under a street light that year. It is such a precious memory  I treasure of my dad, who has gone home to heaven. I think about that memory every year at Christmas. I’ve forgotten so many other memories of toys, games, and dolls, but that gift of precious time spent with my dad, that snowy night with a simple book under a street light, will live in my heart forever.  Because sometimes the most precious gifts aren’t the ones that cost the most money. Instead, they are the humblest of gifts that are given in love. 

See you in the Field,

Susan