Christmas Morning Imagined

Christmas morning a 13-year-old girl somewhere in Hunterdon County opened her Christmas gifts. Her eyes widened with pleasure when she saw a collection of makeup and a glittery outfit of tights and a top – two items on her wish list. Her younger brother, a 3-year-old boy, opened a Monster Machine truck. I imagine them saying “Just what I wanted!” with huge smiles on their faces. At the same time, in another household, a 6-year-old girl unwrapped a beautiful doll who looked a lot like her. And in yet another household, a young mother watched with delight as her one-year-old son opened a Mickey Mouse (who he loves) toy and her 2-year-old daughter opened a Dory fleece blanket.

I imagine all the parents of all the children in the three families we at Unity Spiritual Center adopted wrapping these items at night after the kids were asleep. (That’s why we donate unwrapped gifts and wrapping paper.) The next morning colorful wrapped presents appeared under their family Christmas trees.

I wasn’t there to actually see these sights, yet I believe that’s what happened this Christmas.

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A recent Daily Word was “Giving.” The affirmation was:

Through giving, I receive.

One of the favorite parts of my job at Unity is to contribute to our quarterly service projects. This year’s Giving Tree fell at a time when I was going to be out of town visiting my mom in Illinois. We only had one week to make this project happen this year.

I’ve always known that I don’t do the Giving Tree by myself. This year is living proof of that. I was able to type up the gift requests before I left. Rebecca, my dear co-worker, then stepped in. She and her daughter Ryli made the gift tags; Rebecca created the display just outside of our Fellowship kitchen on Sunday, December 4.

The gifts for “our” three families were due back on the following Sunday, December 11, so we could comply with  the United Way of Hunterdon County Helping Hands program’s request that all gifts be delivered to them in Flemington on Monday, December 12.

Then our wonderful, generous Unity family made it work. I returned from a great week with my mom to learn that all 29 tags had been taken, except one - for me. Gailann Bruen and I organized all the donated gifts into three family bags after the December 11 Sunday service. Driving those bags to Flemington to the United Way office gave me great pleasure.

I don’t know the names of everyone who gave gifts. It’s not important that I do. What is important for me, and for all of us, is to believe in those Christmas scenes above – we helped make them happen - and to believe that when we all pitch in, when we all give, a wonderful thing happens: we receive far more than we give.

Through giving, I receive.

And I am grateful.

~ JEAN