The Best Regift Ever…
Online shopping works pretty well for me. This time of year, I have boxes being dropped at our front door a few times a week. I usually snatch them up and move them to my closet so no one else in the family has time to discern where the box is from and what is inside. Today three boxes arrived and as I was following my usual scoop and dump process, I realized one of the boxes was hand addressed to me.
Hmm. I usually know everything being dropped on our welcome mat. This one got my attention. I scurried to put the others away and then opened this unexpected guest. It was from Oregon and did not have the swoosh logo. Instead, it was from a family friend I have only seen once in the last 25 years. I opened the packaging to find a shadow box with a very glittery tattered star housed within it. As I turned the gift over I found the explanation. This was a gift I had given our family's adopted aunt. This sweet woman had become my mom's best friend during our time in California and helped teach me to read and swim so many years ago. She recollected that I gave her the star as a kindergarten or first grader. It must have been the last Christmas we lived near each other. We moved from California to Florida when I was in the first grade. She explained that she had used this star as her tree topper all these years and now was sending it back to my care. There was something about seeing my childish gift 35 years later and realizing that for decades it had served as a reminder of the memories and love we had for Aunt Kathy. I had no idea that gift would last a week let alone make a difference to anyone. I could never have understood then what joy I could offer another human soul. Do we really understand the privilege we have to love people well? We are missing a key component of our God-given purpose if we neglect to love others well.What if you and I determined to leave figurative golden stars everywhere we went? It wasn't an expensive gift. It was a reminder that she was loved. Surely we are not so hurried that we cannot make time to do the little things that remind people they matter.
The star will now be displayed in my home. Not because it is pretty, but because it will remind me that each day I can choose to make someone else's life beautiful, even in the smallest of gestures.