What Gift Do I Have...

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One of my fondest memories of Christmas past is that of my mother reading Christmas stories to my little sister and me before we went to bed each night. Mama was a drama major in college, and she used her gift to bring joy to her children and family, her church and her community. Reading A Christmas Carol, she brought each character to life. From Ebeneezer Scrooge to Tiny Tim to the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet To Come, the stories she read became real as if we were living them ourselves.

The story that touched my heart most, both as a child and as an adult, was The Littlest Angel. The story of a little boy who had transitioned and become one of the Heavenly Host before he was necessarily ready brought tears to my eyes when I was a child. When my own children were growing up, it was all I could do to get through reading it without crying myself-I don't know how Mama did every year. And there were many hours of merriment as my children grew older to see just how far Mom could get into the book without tearing up!

The Littlest Angel has a terrible time adjusting to heavenly life. After all, he is still a child. He likes to run up and down the golden streets and swing on lamp posts. He isn't very good at flying yet, still having very small wings; and his halo, always slightly tarnished, is too big for his small head and is always slipping down or falling off his head so he has to chase it! He is a bother to all the other angels, and he really is just miserable in heaven where there is so little for a young angel to do.

As the birth of the Christ child approaches, each of the Heavenly Host is preparing a special gift to present Him at His birth. The Littlest Angel, however, can think of only one thing that might bring a smile to the face of the Holy Infant. He pulls a box from under his bed, and places it at the foot of the throne of God among all of the other beautiful and grand gifts placed there by the citizens of Heaven. When he sees the grandeur of all the other gifts, he is ashamed of the crude, unsightly box he has offered as his gift to the Christ child.

Before the Littlest Angel can remove the box from the mix, the hand of God picks it up and opens it. In it are a butterfly, a sky-blue egg, two white stones found on a river bank where he had played, and a leather strap that his mongrel dog had worn. In the end, these lowly child's treasures are the things that the Almighty sees as the greatest gifts offered to the Christ child, and the box begins to glow and becomes the Star over a stable in Bethlehem. (Yep, I'm cryin' again! And when I asked little Mama to be sure I was telling the story right, she cried too!)

How often do we hide under the bed or simply throw in the trash the gifts we have to offer the world? What things do we overlook or simply omit an opportunity to share that seem to us a meager amount with another just because it seems so meager? Could it be that what we have kept hidden and considered most abhorrent are the very gifts that are most needed in our world at this time?

Each of us is a gift, and each of us has a very specific gift to give to the world. Don't worry if you don't know exactly what that gift is. Like the Littlest Angel, open your heart and let your true light shine. Know that you are the gift and the blessing the world awaits-yes, that the world needs at this time. It is our own birth as the Christed Ones that we await at this time of year. And in the words of Tiny Tim, "God bless us, every one!"

Namaste!