When I was a kid, my sisters, brother, and I were always aflutter with excitement the night before Christmas. Early Christmas morning we would sneak downstairs to see the gifts under the tree, and then sneak right back up to our bedrooms. A large gift like a bicycle was unwrapped, and we would do a great job of pretending it was a big surprise. But sometimes, a very small gift we had hoped for actually would be a really big surprise, because the small box containing it would be in a much bigger wrapped box.
Christmas, of course, is far bigger than the giving and receiving of material gifts. It’s about what God, divine Love, freely gives to everyone—for each of us to receive freely and give freely. It can appear in very big ways or in the smallest kindnesses. For example, my mom used to say to us kids, who were each small in size, “Big things come in little packages.” It made us feel we had inherent worth and ability greater than appearances might suggest.
Everyone has inherent value and capability way beyond what is apparent on the surface. There was a man in the Bible who had been crippled since birth and saw little prospects for himself. He simply sat outside the entrance of a place of worship asking for a little something from the people coming there.
