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The Gift

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John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

CHRISTMAS STORY: Pa never had much compassion for the lazy or those who squandered their means and then never had enough for the necessities. But for those who were genuinely in need, his heart was as big as all outdoors. It was from him that I learned the greatest joy in life comes from giving, not from receiving.

 

It was Christmas Eve 1881. I was fifteen years old and feeling like the world had caved in on me because there just hadn’t been enough money to buy me the rifle that I’d wanted so bad that year for Christmas.

 

We did the chores early that night for some reason. I just figured Pa wanted a little extra time so we could read in the Bible. So after supper was over I took my boots off and stretched out in front of the fireplace and waited for Pa to get down the old Bible.  I was still feeling sorry for myself and, to be honest, I wasn’t in much of a mood to read scriptures.

 

But Pa didn’t get the Bible; instead he bundled up and went outside. I couldn’t figure it out because we had already done all the chores.  I didn’t worry about it long though; I was too busy wallowing in self-pity.

 

Soon Pa came back in. It was a cold clear night out and there was ice in his beard.  “Come on, Matt,” he said. “Bundle up good, it’s cold out tonight.” I was really upset then. Not only wasn’t I getting the rifle for Christmas, now Pa was dragging me out in the cold, and for no earthly reason that I could see.

 

We’d already done all the chores, and I couldn’t think of anything else that needed doing, especially not on a night like this.  But I knew Pa was not very patient at one dragging one’s feet when he’d told them to do something,  so I got up and put my boots back on and got my cap, coat, and mittens. Ma gave me a mysterious smile as I opened the door to leave the house.  Something was up, but I didn’t know what.

 

Outside, I became even more dismayed. There in front of the house was the work team, already hitched to the big sled. Whatever it was we were going to do wasn’t going to be a short, quick, little job. I could tell. We never hitched up the big sled unless we were going to haul a big load.

 

Pa was already up on the seat, reins in hand. I reluctantly climbed up beside him. The cold was already biting at me. I wasn’t happy. When I was on, Pa pulled the sled around the house and stopped in front of the woodshed.  He got off and I followed. “I think we’ll put on the high sideboards,” he said.  “Here, help me.” The high sideboards! It had been a bigger job than I wanted to do with just the low sideboards on, but whatever it was we were going to do would be a lot bigger with the high sideboards on.

 

When we had exchanged the sideboards Pa went into the woodshed and came out with an armload of wood—the wood I’d spent all summer hauling down from the mountain, and then all fall sawing into blocks and splitting. What was he doing? Finally I said something. “Pa,” I asked, “what are you doing?” ”

 

You been by the Widow Jensen’s lately?” he asked.  The Widow Jensen lived about two miles down the road. Her husband had died a year or so before and left her with three children, the oldest being eight.

 

Sure, I’d been by, but so what? “Yeah,” I said, “why?”

 

“I rode by just today,” Pa said. “Little Jakey was out digging around in the woodpile trying to find a few chips. They’re out of wood, Matt.” That was all he said and then he turned and went back into the woodshed for another armload of wood. I followed him.

 

We loaded the sled so high that I began to wonder if the horses would be able to pull it. Finally, Pa called a halt to our loading, then we went to the smoke house and Pa took down a hold side of a Deer and a fewTurkeys.  He handed them to me and told me to put them in the sled and wait.  When he returned he was carrying a sack of flour over his right shoulder and a smaller sack of something in his left hand.

 

“What’s in the little sack?” I asked.

 

“Shoes. They’re out of shoes. Little Jakey just had gunny sacks wrapped around his feet when he was out in the wood-pile this morning.

I got the children a little candy too. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without a little candy.”

 

We rode the two miles to Widow Jensen’s pretty much in silence.  I tried to think through what Pa was doing. We didn’t have much by worldly standards. Of course, we did have a big woodpile, though most of what was left now was still in the form of logs that I would have to cut.

 

So why was Pa buying them shoes and candy? Really, why was he doing any of this? Widow Jensen had closer neighbors than us. It shouldn’t have been our concern.

 

We came in from the blind side of the Jensen house and unloaded the wood as quietly as possible, then we took the meat and flour and shoes to the door.

 

We knocked. The door opened a crack and a timid voice said, “Who is it?”

 

“Lucas Miles, Ma’am, and my son, Matt. Could we come in for a bit?”

 

Widow Jensen opened the door and let us in. She had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. The children were wrapped in another and were sitting in front of the fireplace by a very small fire that hardly gave off any heat at all.

 

Widow Jensen fumbled with a match and finally lit the lamp.  “We brought you a few things, Ma’am,” Pa said and set down the sack of flour. I put the meat on the table. Then Pa handed her the sack that had the shoes in it. She opened it hesitantly and took the shoes out on e pair at a time. There was a pair for her and one for each of the children—sturdy shoes, the best, shoes that would last.

 

I watched her carefully.  She bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling and then tears filled her eyes and started running down her cheeks. She looked up at Pa like she wanted to say something, but it wouldn’t come out.

 

“We brought a load of wood too, Ma’am,” Pa said, then he turned to me and said, “Matt, go bring enough in to last for awhile. Let’s get that fire up to size and heat this place up.”

 

I wasn’t the same person when I went back out to bring in the wood. I had a big lump in my throat and, much as I hate to admit it, there were tears in my eyes too.

 

In my mind I kept seeing those three kids huddled around the fireplace and their mother standing there with tears running down her cheeks and so much gratitude in her heart that she couldn’t speak. My heart swelled within me and a joy filled my soul that I’d never known before. I had given at Christmas many times before, but never when it had made so much difference.

 

I could see we were literally saving the lives of these people.   I soon had the fire blazing and everyone’s spirits soared. The kids started giggling when Pa handed them each a piece of candy and Widow Jensen looked on with a smile that probably hadn’t crossed her face for a long time.   She finally turned to us. “God bless you,” she said.  “I know the Lord himself has sent you.   The children and I have been praying that he would send one of his angels to spare us.”

 

In spite of myself, the lump returned to my throat and the tears welled up in my eyes again. I’d never thought of Pa in those exact terms before, but after Widow Jensen mentioned it I could see that it was probably true. I was sure that a better man than Pa had never walked the earth. I started remembering all the times he had gone out of his way for Ma and me, and many others. The list seemed endless as I thought on it.

 

Pa insisted that everyone try on the shoes before we left. I was amazed when they all fit and I wondered how he had known what sizes to get. Then I guessed that if he was on an errand for the Lord that the Lord would make sure he got the right sizes.

 

Tears were running down Widow Jensen’s face again when we stood up to leave. Pa took each of the kids in his big arms and gave them a hug. They clung to him and didn’t want us to go. I could see that they missed their pa, and I was glad that I still had mine.

 

At the door Pa turned to Widow Jensen and said, “The Mrs. wanted me to invite you and the children over for Christmas dinner tomorrow. The turkey will be more than the three of us can eat, and a man can get cantankerous if he has to eat turkey for too many meals. We’ll be by to get you about eleven. It’ll be nice to have some little ones around again.

 

Brother Miles. I don’t have to say, “‘May the Lord bless you,’ I know for certain that He will.”

 

Out on the sled I felt a warmth that came from deep within and I didn’t even notice the cold. When we had gone a ways, Pa turned to me and said, “Matt, I want you to know something. Your ma and me have been tucking a little money away here and there all year so we could buy that rifle for you, but we didn’t have quite enough. Then yesterday a man who owed me a little money from years back came by to make things square. Your ma and me were real excited, thinking that now we could get you that rifle, and I started into town this morning to do just that. But on the way I saw little Jakey out scratching in the woodpile with his feet wrapped in those gunny sacks and I knew what I had to do. So, Son, I spent the money for shoes and a little candy for those children. I hope you understand.”

 

I understood, and my eyes became wet with tears again. I understood very well, and I was so glad Pa had done it. Just then the rifle seemed very low on my list of priorities. Pa had given me a lot more. He had given me the look on Widow Jensen’s face and the radiant smiles of her three children.

 

For the rest of my life, whenever I saw any of the Jensens, or split a block of wood, I remembered, and remembering brought back that same joy I felt riding home beside Pa that night. Pa had given me much more than a rifle that night, he had given me the best Christmas of my life. Count your blessings everyday, slowly and thoughtfully.

 

Let us Pray!

___________________________________________________________________

 

When I was a kid, we enjoyed the Christmas time because it was wend we got everything we wore out that year.

 

So for the Christmas we got a pair of new; or sometime not so new hand me down shoes. We got new clothing and sometimes that too belonged to your older brother or sister the year before.

 

And last but not lease we got a Toy, oh yes a toy. Christmas was also a time of year we could eat as much as we wanted.

 

Why because Mom always cooked the biggest Turkey she could find, but the problem was we just got finished eating turkey sandwiches from Thanksgiving and now you got another month of eating it again.

 

Somehow Mom made Turkey in so many ways it was always good to the last bite.

 

Mostly Christmas was a time of family coming together, sometime aunts and uncles who you did not know you had would come and visit and they always gave you a piece of money.

 

I can remember one Christmas more then any; it was the one we had nothing.

 

My Dad had a farm in Florida where we were living at that time and he had gone back to work on the Ships. So it was just my Mother and oldest step brother with all of us 6 kids left on the farm to keep it going till Dad came back home.

 

Sometimes he would go for 6 months some times up to a year we would not see him so money was hard to come-by at times. There was enough just no extra money for anything that year;

 

Mom had to make due with what she had. But you know somehow that was the best Christmas we had because I can still remember it and none of the others.

 

About two days before Christmas my oldest brother went out and cut down a pine tree that we set-up in the house. Then he had a bag full of pine cones, we ask what are then for, he said to have fun with and he got out some old paint. So that is what we did painted pine cones any colour we wanted and when they were dried we hung them on the tree.

 

Mom as normal got my brother to kill the biggest turkey we had on the farm and my brother managed to sell a few others to the city people who came looking. So there was plenty to eat and the extra money from selling Turkeys sue came in handy that year. That was always like Mom pulling a rabbit out of the hat again and we all got a Toy.

 

Christmas is a wonderful time of year. It is a time of giving, a time that we can visit family and friend that we might not have seen all year long. It is a time of getting back together and just remembering the past as we look forward to the future.

 

As in our Story many times our parents sacrificed and did with out in order to give to there Children things that they needed not things that they wanted.

 

God gives us things we need, things like forgiveness and eternal life.

 

  • John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

When we choose to disobey God, when we turned our back and walked away from his love? When we rejected him and all his goodness, He still does not gave up on loving us.

 

When we sin and chose to die in our blindness and stupidly, God sent His Son his only Son to die in our place so that he could give us life once again.

 

For God so loved the world,

 

That little Verse of Scripture says a lot. In the days of Creation we are told that after God had finish his act of creation he looked out and saw everything he had make

 

In the book of Genesis 1: 31: we are told, God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

 

God did not just through us into a dead old world; every thing that came from the Master hand came with the best intensions.

 

God gave of the best that heaven could give in the creation of Mankind, in that we were created in the image of God. What an honour God places on Man to be made in the likens of his Creator

 

The Scripture goes on to say that he also gave his only begotten Son,

 

Not only did God love us but he had also planned ahead that in the event man would prove to be unfaithful, there would be hope for him.

 

 Just how would this come about; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam.

 

It was a revelation ofthe mystery which hath been kept in silence through eternality.Rom. 16:25, R. V.

 

It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God’s throne.

 

From the beginning, God the Father and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate.

 

God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency head on.

 

So great was His love for this world, that He covenanted to give His only-begotten Son, “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

 

This could not be done by force. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God’s government; He desires only the service of love.

 

 For love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or by authority.

 

Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan.

 

This work only one Being in all the universe could do. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it known.

 

Upon the world’s dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise, “with healing in his wings(Mal. 4:2).  {RC 23.3}

 

17: For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

 

To all who have accepted Christ as a personal Savoir, the Holy Spirit has come as a counsellor, sanctifier, guide, and a witness.

 

The more closely believers have walked with God, the more clearly and powerfully have they testified of their Redeemer’s love and of His saving grace.

 

Romans 8:

39: Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

In the beginning, God was revealed in all the works of his creation. It was Christ that spread the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space, and fashioned the flowers of the field.

 

“His strength settled fast the mountains.” “The sea is His, and He made it.” Ps. 65:6; 95:5. It was He that filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song.

 

And upon all things in earth, air, and sky, He wrote the message of his Father’s love for Mankind. 

 

So I ask you this Christmas before you open the first present. Take time and thank God for all the gifts he has giving you.

 

Take time to thank Jesus for taking your place on the cross and dyeing in your place in order to give you the gift of eternal life. 

 

We did not have all the things that Kids have today, but the little we had we knew and understood the price of what it cost. And that was the sacrifice of our parents 

 

Instead of toys this year just give to your Children something more, give them a box of Love and let them see in you the Gift of Gods forever Love.

 

There is an old song I remember that went something like this; Iam getting nothing for Christmas Mom and Dad are made, Iam getting nothing for Christmas cause I ant been nothing but bad.

 

Truth is we were all bad, but God loved us so much he gave us the greatest Gift Heaven could give. His Son Jesus

 

God Bless and have a very marry Christmas

Elder Tim McNab

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