(Written by Gaye Willis)
One Christmas we had an interesting experience that would
like to share.
Halfway through December we were doing the regular evening
things when there
was a knock at the door. We opened it to find a small package
with a
beautiful ceramic lamb inside. We looked at the calendar and
realized that
the 12 days of Christmas were beginning! We waiting excitedly
for the next
night's surprise and only then, with the gift of a matching
shepherd, did we
realized that the lamb was part of a nativity set.
Each night we grew more excited to see what piece we would
receive. Each
was exquisitely beautiful. The kids kept trying to catch the
givers as we
slowing built the scene at the manager and began to focus on
Christ's birth.
On Christmas Eve, all the pieces were in place, all but the baby
Jesus. My
12-year-old son really wanted to catch our benefactors and began
to devise
all kinds of ways to trap them. He ate his dinner in the minivan
watching and
waiting, but no one came. Finally we called him in to go through
our family's
Christmas Eve traditions. But before the kids went to bed we
checked the
front step - - no Baby Jesus!
We began to worry that my son had scared them off. My
husband suggested
that maybe they dropped the Jesus and there wouldn't be anything
coming.
Somehow something was missing that Christmas Eve. There was a
feeling that
things weren't complete. The kids went to bed and before I went
to bed, I
again checked to see if the Jesus had come -- no, the doorstep
was empty.
In our family the kids can open their stockings when they
want to, but
they have to wait to open any presents until Dad wakes up. So
one by one they
woke up very early and I also woke up to watch them. Even before
they opened
their stockings, each child checked to see if perhaps during the
night the
baby Jesus had come. Missing that piece of the set seemed to
have an odd
effect. At least it changed my focus. I knew there were presents
under the
tree for me and I was excited to watch the children open their
gifts, but
first on my mind was the feeling of waiting for the ceramic
Christ Child.
We had opened just about all of the presents when one of the
children
found one more for me buried deep beneath the limbs of the tree.
He handed me
a small package from my former visiting teaching companion. This
sister was
somewhat less-active in the church. I had been her visiting
teacher for a
couple of years and then, when she was asked to be a visiting
teacher, she
requested to go with me. I had learned over time they didn't
have much for
Christmas, so that their focus was the children. It sounded like
she didn't
get many gifts to open, so I had always given her a small
package - - new
dish towels, the next year's Relief Society lesson manual -- not
much, but
something for her to open. I was touched when at Church on the
day before
Christmas, she had given me this small package, saying it was
just a token of
her love and appreciation. As I took off the bow, I remembered
my friendship
with her and was filled with gratitude for knowing her and for
her kindness
and sacrifice in this giving me a gift. But as the paper fell
away, I began
to tremble and cry. There in the small brown box was the baby
Jesus! He had
come!
I realized on that Christmas Day, that Christ will come
into our lives
in ways that we don't expect. The spirit of Christ comes into
our hearts as
we serve one another. We had waited and watched for Him to
come, expecting
the dramatic "knock at the door and scurrying of feet" but He
came in a
small, simple package that represented service, friendship,
gratitude and
love.
This experience taught me that the beginning of the true
spirit of
Christmas comes as we open our hearts and actively focus on the
Savior. But
we will most likely find Him in the small and simple acts of
love, friendship
and service that we give to each other. This Christmas I want to
feel again
the joy of knowing that Christ is in our home. I want to focus
on loving and
serving. More than that I want to open my heart to Him all year
that I may
see Him again.
"'She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name
Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.'" (Matthew 1:21
NIV)