Broken gifts

Do you remember looking for the gifts under the tree that had your name on them...wondering what lay beneath the wrapping paper? What an awful Christmas that was when I opened all my gifts beforehand and carefully retaped them shut. Christmas morning held no excitement or anticipation - total letdown. I never did it again.

I have a vivid memory of a gift I received for Christmas as a child. This one gift, even as I describe it, sounds archaic compared to the electronic gadgets kids get these days. You have to understand.....I grew up in the dark ages.

I guess you would call it a calculator or an adding device - not electronic, but not an abacus either. It was red, with white knobs along the top representing the 'ones, tens, hundreds, etc. You would push down on the knobs to make the numbers change up or down. Really exciting stuff. Actually.....I have no idea why you would want to do that?! Well...I thought it was cool at the time. I've googled it and found nothing so it must be extinct now....buried with the dinosaurs.

One of my dear brothers picked up my precious gift on that Christmas day to inspect it. Then he decided that playing with it wasn't good enough. He had to KNOW how it worked. I don't recall whether he asked me if he could, but before I knew it, he had my wonderful calculator pried open, inspecting the guts of it and trying to figure out the mechanics of it. Problem is......he couldn't get it back together properly. I remember being very sad that the gift I had received was now hopelessly broken - on purpose!  My brother went on at a later age to design airplane wings (real ones), so I guess he got better at understanding the mechanics of stuff. (Explains why he's somewhat anxious on planes, especially when he sits by the window with a clear view of  the wing).

There'll be lots of broken gifts on Christmas day....and disappointed kids and adults whose toys have shattered or quit either the day they are opened or shortly thereafter. Obviously, the giver of the gift doesn't plan for it to be broken.......

Well....except for one gift that was given once.

As far as I'm aware, it was the only invaluable gift carefully planned and thought out ridiculously far in advance and knowingly given in order to be broken....shattered to pieces.....wrecked beyond recognition.

Strange, that while lovingly giving and receiving temporary stuff....so many of us pay little attention to that priceless Gift.....even though the Gift has our name on it......and the holiday we are celebrating has His name in it.

Time to start Christmas shopping!

It may be too early for some, but I've started my Christmas shopping. Yep, I'm perusing the catalogue right now and there's just so much to choose from to buy, I don't know where to start. It's so easy when you can just use your credit card and order online. I have to ask myself how much will I be spending on Christmas gifts this year? And how much of it will be wisely spent as opposed to wasted?

I'm just hung up on whether to buy the piglets, the hens and rooster, the rabbits or perhaps the turkey.... Or even some fruit trees or an aids care kit.

I'm quite drawn to the piglets actually.

To think that for little more than I'd spend for a couple of meals at Swiss Chalet or Kelsey's, or even on Christmas decorations and wrapping, I can change a family's whole lifestyle with my purchase from the catalogue. That is staggering to me!

Can you resist these beautiful models in the catalogue? Check out the World Vision Gift Catalogue and search for the amazing ways you can change lives with some of what sits in your wallet or bank account. Could you even give if you don't have anything extra? Can you afford not to give? Look inside your heart, take a look at those faces, and you'll find the answer.

"When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required..." - Luke 12:48, The Bible, New Living Translation

"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke