Our Finest Gifts
“Our finest gifts we bring, pa rum pum pum pum - to lay before the King, pa rum pum pum pum… ” – Lyrics from Little Drummer Boy
Yesterday, Linnea and I saw the movie “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”, a story about a group of six, unchurched, poor brothers and sisters - the Herdmans - who take over a Christmas pageant. The Herdmans were recipients of the local church’s charitable works committee’s Christmas food basket, which included a ham. The children were saving the ham for Christmas and were really looking forward to their Christmas ham feast, but something more important happened. To learn their parts for the Christmas pageant, the Christmas story was read to them for the first time. They knew that Christmas was Jesus’ birthday and that Jesus was a really important King, but everything else was news to them – the crowded inn, the stable, the shepherds, the star, the Wise Men and their gifts. While the story was being read, they asked many good questions – including what gifts the kings brought for Jesus. When she heard what they were bringing, Imogene (the oldest Herdman who would be playing the part of Mary), hollered “Oil! What kind of cheap king hands out oil for a present?” So, when the three Herdman Wise Men marched up the aisle, the middle child was carrying the one precious gift they agreed would befit a King – the family’s Christmas ham. To everyone’s surprise, the pageant became the best in its seventy-five-year history.
The movie was extraordinary! Amid our tears and laughter, we heard a powerful message about giving, the same message sung by the little drummer boy who, because he was poor, believed that he did not have a gift fit for a King. We read a similar message in the Christian Bible about an impoverished widow who gave her heavenly King all she had to live on. The Herdman children, the little drummer boy, and the widow all wanted to bring their finest gifts to the King; little did they realize that the Herdmans’ Christmas ham, the little drummer boy’s music, and the widow’s two small copper coins were worth more than those who contributed out of their abundance.
In this season of giving, we might ask what our finest gifts truly are. After the Grinch stole all of the presents in Whoville, he learned that he hadn’t stopped Christmas from coming. To paraphrase: It came without ribbons, packages, boxes or bows. Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas means a little bit more. Rather than presents, maybe the finest gift we can offer is our presence. To quote from Victor Hugo’s novel, Les Miserables: “To love another person is to see the face of God.” Maybe our finest gifts come from loving one another so that we are the face of God for one another. Maybe our finest gifts are found in love’s treasure chest: forgiveness, empathy, reconciliation, mercy, compassion, kindness, humility, generosity, and gratitude. Our finest gifts might then bring peace on earth and good will to all.
In God’s Love,
Lanny F. Wilson, M.D.
“Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for [they] have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.” – Luke 21:3-4
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