Part of getting ready for Christmas is finding just the right gift for those you love.  In the song “Little Drummer Boy”, the child feels he has no gift fit to bring baby Jesus, the new born King.  Then he realizes he can play the drum for him.  He played his best and Jesus smiled at him, AND his drum!  The perfect gift that makes Jesus smile!

Here is an ornament which hangs on my Christmas tree.  It is a gift from my friend Ellen:

How wonderfully simple can it be that we just give Jesus the best of who we are, the gift of giving the gift within us that God has already created in us!  I am not certain why that can seem to be so difficult sometimes.  Maybe we think we have to be good at everything and end up spending too much time trying to develop what is not our gift.  What is it we do well, that comes naturally for us?  What do we have a passion for?  What is it that makes us happy?  Could it be that is the gift God wants from us?….the gift that makes baby Jesus smile?

Last night I was with my friend Ellen and our daughters Susan and Meg.

Ellen and I have never been too good at math….

But give us an opportunity to vision about the future…what things could look like, what they could become!  And let me find a way to create a picture of that!!

For me, I would bring baby Jesus something I created. Here are a few words to a song which speak to me…

Questions to think about…

What is it you do well?  What makes you happy?

Think of a story from your childhood which you think illustrates who you are.

Where might the gift God created in you meet the needs of the world?

nk