The Gift

"It wasn't wrapped up as a traditional present would be but often the best gifts aren't. It's hard to wrap a ribbon around a beautiful sunset, the glistening snow over a frozen pond, or the nicker of horses glad to meet you at the gate. It's hard to wrap a ribbon around the knowledge of salvation which God prepared in the sight of all people. Yet wrapped up in swaddling clothes, the baby lie in a manger to save us from the sin of the world. What a delightful gift!" (excerpted from our December 2005 Christmas Letter. The first Christmas Letter sent out from R4C Ranch.)

We had a great Christmas. The preparations were surprisingly unstressed. I stuck to my gift giving plan and had no regrets. The kids and I were lavished with gifts. Some years are like that and for singles, many aren't. It was fun watching my older kids who for the first time were really able to go out and make Christmas lists and understand the blessings of giving. And because Christmas was on Sunday this year, it was so nice to be able to go to church twice this weekend and for the first time going to church on Christmas morning.

I so enjoyed the gifts I gave this year. To make gift-giving more enjoyable our family does a two-generational gift drawing. My parents, grandparent(s), and siblings all draw a name of someone to buy a gift for and our children all draw names to buy for each other. They started this on their own when we excluded them from our drawing but many of them were beginning to start their own families. We started buying for their children instead of them and they started up their own exchange. It is fun to see how it brings them closer together as cousins and how they deal with the technical issues of the Christmas gift giving list; like do you include boyfriends, girlfriends, ex's, and just where do you draw the line.

What used to be a simple exchange of gifts between siblings and their spouses is now quite an interesting mix of blurred family lines between ex's that are still considered sisters and the family of widows and the cousins' cousins. It all seems very complicated but is simplified by the scripture, "What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and what is loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven." I am so glad we have learned how precious relationships are that once bound we pray God will keep them together.

My sister and I, having endured the toughest years of marriage and God so blessed us to overcome and enjoy a time with our husbands when the pain of past hurts was truly forgiven and resolved, inhabit a family that has been tormented by so many divorces it is very heartbreaking. But our little motto is this: When our brothers married their wives, we took them into our families as sisters. When they divorced, that is their choice but we didn't stop loving our brothers or our new sisters. I think that is what sisters love is all about... it is forever. A sister's love is bound on earth, which God protects and does not let the deceiver destroy, and it will be bound in heaven, forever.

Another tradition in our family, even as it grows and changes, expands and collaspes somewhat, is that we hang stockings for each person on Christmas Day. It is a secret Santa sort of enfilling and very fun. It is meant for all to participate in giving gifts without being stressful. Like I tell the young teens who are just starting to earn their own money along with the ability to participate in the actual giving and yet limited on funds, a bag of candy only costs $3 and can be split into at least 30 stockings. The most exciting part of the stocking stuffer idea is that if you have found the perfect gift for someone but didn't draw their name, you can still give it to them by secretly putting it in their stocking. It relieves the stress of thinking you have to buy something for everyone because you really want to give this one perfect gift but can't afford something nice for everyone.

Every once in a while a really special gift shows up in one of the stockings and everyone rejoices together in it. One year my husband had found a special bracelet for my sister. It had cost over a hundred dollars but he hadn't drawn her name. He snuck it in her stocking when everyone else got a candy bar so we could afford the bracelet. He was so excited about giving it to her. It was fun for everyone to see her open it. This year, I think the hit was the reaction when my nephew pulled out his Bodacious DVD. It wasn't a hundred dollar gift but it was that gift that just personally connected with his heart.

Do you remember the most perfect gift you received? Take a moment and think about that gift. Why was it so perfect? Did you realize the person had taken time to think about you and know your heart? Opening that gift you realized that it wasn't something they just picked up off the rack at the last moment but when they saw it they said, "That is so perfect for her." I know not all our gifts are like that... sometimes you just have "gift-giving block" and as hard as you try you can't get a great idea for that person. But God never has gift-giving block. He always knows the perfect gifts for us and is so excited about giving them to us.

Do you remember the most perfect gift you have given to someone? Take a moment and remember it. Why was it so perfect? Again it probably was perfect because it connected you to that person's heart. I think this year the most perfect gift I gave didn't even cost a penny. It was an old hat that actually had already belonged to my nephew. Thanksgiving he was riding with us and in the middle of joking around I rolled down his window, his hat blew off and out of the car. We were on the interstate so I could not stop and get it. The following weekend we were on that same interestate and spotted the hat. We stopped to pick it up and wrapped it up for him for Christmas. He complained for several weeks about me losing his hat and the look on his face and his mother's when he opened that hat for Christmas was priceless. He said, "My hat, I love this hat!"

Everyday we can unwrap the gifts God has given us. At the ranch each new day is exciting and each new season a surprising revelation of God's creation. God's word is our hope, 'where morning dawns and evening fades you call forth songs of joy (psalm 65:).' No matter what the circumstances of our days, each morning and each evening God calls forth songs of joy to fill our hearts. God wraps up each and every day with Joy, unwrap His songs of Joy daily where the morning dawns and the evening fades.

I just want to leave you with two things to ponder today and each day: Ask yourself, "Am I opening up the gifts God has given me today?" And since God's word ensures it is more blessed to give than to receive, ask yourself, "What gifts am I giving to others today?"