THE MORAL OF THE STORY:Gifts for God

“It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself.”

— CHARLES DICKENS

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say, “Christmas is for children,” but it seems like children often get lost in the hustle and bustle of the season. Instead of focusing on simple pleasures, there is intense pressure on people to buy gifts that are bigger, brighter and better than what they have or may even need.

I remember our first Christmas as parents and realizing that our daughter Kelly, who was six months old at the time, wasn’t at all interested in presents, but she loved the colorful bows and ribbons and the crinkling sound wrapping paper made when she crawled over it and played with it.

Now Kelly has children of her own, and I’m sure that they also will be happily entertained by bows and boxes this Christmas. In fact, I had a memorable conversation with 2- 1/2 -year-old granddaughter Mary before Thanksgiving that showed me she already has an amazing grasp of what we celebrate at Christmas. We were eating breakfast and I looked at the calendar on the wall and simply said, “Wow.”

Mary looked up at me and asked, “Why did you say ‘Wow,’ Cici?’ ” I smiled at her and replied, “I said, ‘Wow,’ because I can’t believe it’s already the middle of November. Before you know it, it will be Thanksgiving, and in another blink of an eye, it will be Christmas.”

Then she surprised me. She said, “Then, it will be Jesus’ birthday.” I looked at her and said, “You are absolutely right, Mary. It will be Jesus’ birthday. What do you think we should we give to Jesus on His birthday?”

Without stopping to think, she answered, “We should give him a happy-birthday card.” She spooned another bite of cereal into her mouth, and then asked, “And what about God?”

I put my spoon down and said, “Well, Mary, that’s a good question. What should we give God?” After taking a big drink of water she answered matter-of-factly, “We should give God a thank-you note.”

I told her that was a great idea, that we should thank God.

Before I said anything else, she added, “And we should give him paint and books.” When I asked her why we should give God paint and books, she simply said, “I don’t know,” and then asked if she could be excused because she was finished eating.

I don’t know why she thought God needed paint and books, but it doesn’t really matter. I realized that she had communicated the Christmas message in a wonderful and creative way. Let’s find our own creative way to give Jesus a happy-birthday card as well as a thank-you note to God.

And you can quote me on that.