I had a conversation with my husband about Christmas today. This year we will be celebrating our twenty-fifth Christmas together. Every year has been special and wonderful. Every year has been unique. We buy a Christmas ornament every year with the year on it to remind us about the year. It’s so cute that we now have so many Christmas ornaments from all the different years that we really can’t put any other ornaments on the tree because there isn’t enough room. We even had to buy a bigger tree to fit all the special ornaments we have.
Each year we buy each other gifts. Most of the time, we spend money on a big item that we need for the house and then just spend a little money on each other. Like last year, we bought a stove. Ours was really needing an upgrade and we needed it. The other gifts we bought were tiny and cheap, but we never really needed to buy each other expensive gifts.
That’s where this conversation happened. I told my husband about our first Christmas back in the year 2000. We had been married less than a month. He bought me an electric can opener that could be mounted underneath the kitchen cabinet. I am certain that most people would think that isn’t very romantic. Yet to me, it was wonderful. I am left-handed and have trouble with can openers. His gift showed thoughtfulness and that he knew me. I loved that gift. He mounted it in the kitchen and even though we are in a new place twenty-four years later that can opener is still mounted under the kitchen cabinet. Every time I see it or use it, I remember how much my husband loves me and knows me.
That gift encompasses for me what a real Christmas gift is. It isn’t about buying the biggest most expensive gift to show that you love someone. I think the best Christmas gift is just a gift that shows thoughtfulness, something that shows you thought about who that person is and when they look at it, they know that you really thought about them when you selected it for them.
After all, Christmas really isn’t about gift giving, but in a way, like a second effect, it is. When we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we are celebrating a gift that God gave to us. God gave of Himself so that we could live. He gave us His love and a part of Himself. So, when we give gifts to each other at Christmas time, it really doesn’t matter what the physical gift is, what matters is that it is given with love.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
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