A Christmas Gift Never Given

I  have found myself thinking much about my late Mother in these December days.  Some of that I am certain is because my mind always thinks of family members who are deceased this time of year and the fact that her birthday is December 12.   20 years ago this month, my Mother had surgery at Duke Hospital that was the beginning of the course of events that led to her death about 9 months later.   When Christmas came around in 2000,  Mom was literally in the hospital at Alamance Regional Medical Center.   I rose early that Christmas morning and made my way to Burlington to visit her before returning home to spend Christmas Day with family.   With Mom being in the hospital that year,  we made the decision in our family to not exchange gifts until Mom was home.   I had bought a nightgown for Mom for that Christmas since she was spending most of her time in gowns those days.   I even wrapped it myself though my wrapping certainly did not measure up to the superb wrapping job that Ann and the girl always did.  When we made the decision to not exchange gifts till Mom  was home from the hospital,  I placed her gift on a shelf in one of our closets.   As the days and months passed and Mom transitioned to the hospital to a nursing home and to a rehab center, that gift stayed on that closet shelf.  Unfortunately, it was a gift that was never given and never received.

In some ways, Christmas 2020 is like that Christmas 20 years ago.   20 years ago, it was a different kind of Christmas for my family.  Christmas 2020 has been different for many families in all sorts of ways:   no Christmas parades… no children sitting on Santa’s knee… families staying away from each other  for health and safety reason instead of getting together… families struggling to pay the rent, mortgage, or pay the bills.    In these December days, Christians remember and ponder the wonder of the precious  gift that God gave to the world:   Emmanuel, God with us in the flesh in the form of the Christ child.   This is a precious gift given to one and given to all.   Yet,  a gift is not really a gift unless the gift is both given and received.    God has made the gift of  himself in Christ Jesus.  It is a gift that was wrapped not in ribbons and pretty paper, but in swaddling cloths lying in a manger.    I invite you to receive anew or for the first time the gift of Christ.  It is a gift that is sorely needed by all of us and by all the world.   Have a joy-filled week !-  Pastor Randy Wall

 PRAYER

            O God,  you are as close to us as our heartbeat and breath.   We thank you for the gift to pray and to be prayed for.   We pray for the people we know and do not know.  Remind us daily that we need you;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.