Gifts

For the past few years, I’ve read Max Lucado’s The Christmas Candle every December. It’s a sweet little story about a town in England during the 1860’s. To sum it up (and yes, SPOILER ALERT!), every 25 years an angel visits the candlemaker on the same night in December, touches a single candle and vanishes. That candle is then given to someone chosen by the candlemaker and his wife. This person has a need—an area of life where they need a move from God. They’re given the candle, told to light it and pray, and then during the Christmas Eve service, that person stands in church to give testimony to what happened after they prayed. The candlemaker and his wife are quite insistent that the candle has no power—it is God alone who answers prayer. But everyone petitions for the candle. Everyone has a need. Everyone needs a move of God. Even the candlemaker and his wife consider keeping this year’s candle for themselves.

It’s a nice story and the perfect thing to read at Christmastime to set the mood. But as I was reading it this morning, in the quiet hours before everyone is awake, sipping on my peppermint mocha coffee and listening to soft, peaceful Christmas music, something about the story made me think of how God might feel on the eve of a blessing. Back to the story—and I’ll try not to give away too many details in case you want to read it—there’s a mix-up and 30 people are given candles. But no one knows that except the candlemaker and his wife. They didn’t know which candle was touched by the angel, but they gave out candles anyway, certain that they’d be found out eventually and they’d have to come clean.

It’s Christmas Eve. They’re all in church. The Reverand calls upon the recipient of the candle to stand and share their testimony. The candlemaker and his wife tremble with fear. This is the moment they’ll loose everything—their reputation, their home, their community—all gone when their neighbors learn what they’ve done. It’s such a tense moment, they can’t bear to look. But suddenly, 30 of their neighbors are standing and telling the church what God has done after they lit their candle and prayed. Stunned, the candlemaker and his wife are speechless! There’s a lovely moment of bringing things full circle as he explains what happened with the candle and gives God glory for all of the answered prayers. Like I said, nice story.

But I couldn’t help but wonder, what was happening in Heaven the night before? When the candlemaker and his wife were so distraught with worry, so anxious about what will happen tomorrow, what was God doing?

He must have been SO EXCITED!!!

Can you imagine? Think of God, looking down on this couple, knowing what He knows, knowing what’s coming. A smile on His face SO BIG, it can’t be contained to just His mouth and eyes—His entire body is smiling! Maybe He’s thinking, “Oh, just WAIT until tomorrow! I can’t hardly stand it! You’re going to be SO happy! I can’t wait to see the looks on everyone’s face!”

Have you ever felt like that? As a parent, I think, I feel like this most Christmas mornings. Especially when there’s that one gift under the tree that I can’t wait to give. It’s the most special, most thoughtful, most anticipated gift…and no one knows it’s coming except ME! The package burns my fingers, I can’t sit still. JUST OPEN IT ALREADY!!!

When I was in college, my older brother and I learned that Stomp, a percussion group that our dad had mentioned once or twice, was going to be performing in St. Louis at the Fox Theater later that year. Wouldn’t it be great to get Dad tickets for Christmas? Tickets were expensive, especially for 2 poor college kids. But we pooled our money and saved enough to buy 2 of the least expensive tickets. The Fox Theater was within walking distance of my school, so one afternoon, when classes were over, I walked to the box office and purchased 2 tickets. Christmas was still weeks away, but those tickets sat in my room, tucked in a safe place until I went home at the end of the semester.

Every year on his birthday or Christmas or Father’s Day, we’d ask Dad what he wanted. He said the SAME thing EVERY time. CD’s. Really? Boring old CD’s? Now, my dad is as cool as dads can be. His musical interests are eclectic enough that even I would raid his music collection as a teenager. He had Pearl Jam before Pearl Jam was cool. He knew about Enya before all the new agey enlightened folk knew about Enya. But shopping for CD’s for Dad was NOT a fun thing. He didn’t want the top selling album or the most popular. He’d want something weird that was hard to find. So, most of the time, we bought him a gift certificate to Sound Warehouse (remember those???) so he could do the shopping himself. It was NEVER fun watching him tear into an envelope with a stinkin’ gift card in it.

Except this year…

Jerm and I put the tickets in one of those money holder Christmas cards. So, to everyone else, it looked like we’d followed tradition and bought Dad the standard gift certificate. We handed him the envelope. He knew right away what was in there. CD’s! You could practically see him making mental plans to visit Sound Warehouse on the day after Christmas. Oh, the YES! albums he could buy!

But Jerm and I knew! We KNEW what was in that envelope! We were practically bouncing up and down with excitement!

Dad did not disappoint. He opened the envelope, already knowing what was there (or so he thought!). He took the edge of the card, sliding it from the envelope, opened it up and…

BAM! The sheer JOY and SURPRISE on his face was perfectly priceless! His eyes lit up, wide with excitement. His mouth made a round “oooooohhhhhh!”. It was the second-best gift I’ve ever given (the first is for another post). And SO much fun. Even better, when the time came to see the show, Dad picked me to come along. I not only got to watch him open the gift, I got to watch him enjoy it too. (It was a pretty cool show!)

Can you imagine God feeling the same thing? When’s the last time you received a blessing out of the blue? Or one you didn’t see coming? Or got an answered prayer in the most unexpected way? It’s happened to me a few times. I imagine God watching down from Heaven, on the edge of His seat, waiting for me to open the box of whatever blessing is inside, jumping up and down, ready to burst with excitement.

With so many children to delight, He must be having so much fun.