Good Things Come in Small Packages - Pam Mytroen

My Grade Four Teacher, much to the delight of my parents, wrote on my report card that good things come in small packages. Though I was the smallest of my peers that year, weighing in at a scrawny 47 pounds, I was at the top of my class in spelling.

A girl in Mexico city received a shoe-box four years ago. She felt that the world had forgotten her. But when she opened her box and found simple gifts tucked inside, it sparked an undying hope in her. She is now preparing to become a doctor. She wants to give back to others. Operation Christmas Child began because one man in England prepared a few shoe-box gifts for child victims of war in Bosnia. Since then it has grown to over eight million shoe-boxes annually. Good things come in small packages!

In 1843 Charles Dickens, needing money for their soon to be born child, wrote a simple story originally called “Carol”, paid to have it published, and in under six days the publishers Chapman and Hall of London dispensed 6000 copies. Though it was only a short story it has endured for two centuries through print and theatre. His little ‘package’ impacted English culture. The next Christmas, December 1844 began a tradition that has continued for decades. All factories and businesses in England and North America closed their doors Christmas Eve and didn’t re-open until Boxing Day so that Tiny Tim and others like him could celebrate Christ’s birth. Good things come in small packages!

In 1940 a man sat in his hotel room waiting. He had a few minutes of spare time. He scrawled out the words and melody to a Christmas tune. It’s become the most popular Christmas song ever recorded. We’ve all sung it, hummed it, or enjoyed it at some time during the season: “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin. Good things come in small packages!

This Christmas we have the opportunity to impact our culture around us. We may choose to give a small gift, say a few short words, or help out in some small way at a charity. But those tiny gifts of our time, like a spark, can become a blazing lamp of hope in the darkness.

One of the smallest, most un-noticed gifts came on a cold winter night in a humble shelter when Jesus, a small package, was delivered to earth. The Word, the complete and final statement of God, arrived as a whisper. Today he continues to speak in a still small voice, yet his voice has the power to calm the storm and raise the dead. God knows that the very best things come in small packages!

Though your words be few and your gifts be simple, know that they have the power to last forever.

~ Pam Mytroen