THE EXCITEMENT OF GIVING

Some of us can remember the time in our lives when we first became aware that we were loved.

For Rob that magic moment came when he was 15 and he overheard a conversation between his mother and father.

"Mary," said his father, "I hate to call Rob in the mornings.  He's growing so fast and he needs sleep.  If you could see how soundly he's sleeping when I go in to wake him up.  I wish I could manage alone."

"Adam," replied his mother, "you know there's too much to do on the farm.  Anyway, it's time Rob took his turn."

"Yes," said his father slowly, "but I sure do hate to wake him."

As Rob listened, a strange, wonderful feeling came over him.  His father loved him!  He had never thought of it before.  Neither his father nor his mother talked much about loving their children.  Such things were taken for granted.

On the night before Christmas, that year when he was 15 - Pearl Buck relates an episode in a moving story entitled "Christmas Day in the Morning" - Rob lay in bed wishing he had a better present for his father than the dime-store tie he had bought.

Then the thought struck him.  He would get up early that morning - Christmas morning - while his father was still asleep and creep into the barn and get all the milking done.

Then when his father went in to start the milking, he would see that it was all done.

"What the..." he could hear his father exclaiming.

So that's what he would do.  At quarter to 3 he got up and crept down to the barn.  He finished the milking, then came into the house and crawled back into bed.  He lay still, laughing to himself.

In just a few minutes his father would know.  His dancing heart was ready to jump from his bady.

Soon, sure enough, the door to his room opened.

"Rob!"

"Yes, Dad?"

"Rob, you son-of-a-gun!"  His father was laughing - a sobbing sort of laugh.

"It's for Christmas, Dad!"

It was dark and they couldn't see each other's faces but Rob reached out and found his father and clutched him in a great hug.

"Son, thank you.  Nobody ever did a nicer thing."

This is a story in the true spirit of Christmas, for love was exchanged that Christmas morning between a father and his son and Christmas is a love story - a love story as old as the Judean hills which first echoed to its telling and as new as this Christmas Day.

[Copied from an old, yellowed, newspaper clipping in my Christmas file - by George R. Plagenz, 'Scripps-Howard Religion Writer]