I shared the following story in today's Christmas message, titled: "Gifts Fit for a King!"
We
probably best capture the true essence of gift-giving when we are still quite
young. We want to do something great for
our parents. We want to do something
extravagant. We really want to impress
them. We may even empty our piggy bank
as we indulge ourselves in the adventure of buying great gifts for our parents. This obviously happens after we’ve passed
through the home-made gift-giving stage!
I remember the year that I became fascinated with a horse’s head in an
expensive gift shop in Beaver
Falls Beaver Falls
Now I forgot to mention that my
mom had no love for horses. She had
never had a horse and had never been on a horse; as a matter of fact, she had probably never
even been near a horse. I don’t know
what happened to logic that year, but I convinced myself that she just had to
have this horse’s head.
On Christmas
morning, when she pulled the tissue out of that expensive looking gift box and
gazed on that horse’s head, I knew I’d hit a home run! She loved it!
She fussed over it and gushed over me for spending my hard-earned
allowance money on such a nice gift.
After Christmas, she called me into the living room one day to discuss a
special place for this treasured gift.
My folks had just gotten some new living room furniture, and one end
table was rectangular with a lower shelf and a top shelf. She had placed it on the lower shelf and
explained that it looked like it was in a stable. I was tickled with delight at her
creativity!
In time, the horse’s head
was gradually moved further and further back on that lower shelf until it
couldn’t be seen by anyone. I never
noticed. I was a young man before I
realized how inappropriate a gift it was for my mother; yet I love her to this day for the graceful
way she handled me and my horse’s head gift!
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