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Not With Dollars, but With Love When I was a child, my family alternately enjoyed periods of relative wealth and abject poverty. Yes, I said "enjoyed," for my father was an eternal optimist and was truly as happy when he had no money as he was during times of plenty, and he set the mood for our clan. At Christmas, rich or poor, we each got one gift and a stocking filled with nuts, candy and fruit. The stockings were never the fancy, store-bought kind. We each used one of Daddy's big white work sox. Sometimes the treats had been scavenged from waste bins behind supermarkets, but nuts are still nuts and over-ripened fruit can still be tasty... and it really makes the stocking bulge! We always had a tree festooned with home made decorations. Mama traced Christmas bells and stars onto cardboard to cut out and color or wrap in foil. We saved the patterns from year to year and I still have them. One year when we couldn't afford to buy a tree or find one to cut, my brother went begging to the Christmas tree lots and came home dragging a six-footer behind him. We were overjoyed... well most of us were, but that's another story ;-) On Christmas morning, the gifts were opened slowly and one at a time - a tradition I've kept to this day. The whole family would watch as each present was unveiled. It would be carefully examined and "oohed and aahed" over by everyone, including the giver, then carefully placed on display beside the tree as our attention focused on the next unwrapping event. There wasn't always a big holiday dinner with all the trimmings, but we were never hungry and there was always a joyous spirit of celebration. The meal was approached with great fanfare and lots of anticipation. Mama would be in the kitchen for hours and we would all join her there, sometimes helping, often hindering her progress. We spent the day enjoying each other, playing games, sharing what we had. No TV shows to distract us, no rush-rush parties to disband us. Just a small family who were oh so thankful to be together, to be so close. When our family had plenty, the single gift per person was a bit more extravagant, but Christmas was still a simple and commercially humble affair at our house. The "extra" we might have spent on ourselves was happily given to those more needy. Although Mama was a believer, Daddy didn't come to Christ until just before he died, but Jesus was always part of Christmas at our house. The story of His birth and the "Reason for the Season" was never ignored in a frenzy of materialism as is too often the case in today's world... even among Christians. So much has happened since those simple times of Christmas joy. I somehow forgot how happy those times really were. When I had children of my own, I wanted them to be filled with awe at huge piles of presents under an elaborately decorated tree... and every year it got more expensive and more materialistic until we were actually using credit cards to pay for it all! My parents made Christmas exciting and full of wonder, not with dollars but with love. I pray I can remember and apply their wisdom this Christmas and I pray the same for you. Payment in Kind His name
was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day,
while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a
cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his
tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in
black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling
to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what
could have been a slow and terrifying death. Actual
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