A Meaningful Gift - Gloria Guest

“Wanna trade?”

Two things made me do it; the expectant look in the girls eyes and I really was a little too curious to see what was in her box. Maybe something nicer?

At only seven years old, it was my first Christmas gift exchange and I wasn’t yet well versed in the hidden messages and secret manipulations to being a part of this new girls world. I just knew that I absolutely loved the markers I had just opened. I had never seen so many amazing colors lined up like my own multi-colored rainbow!

But the older girls’ eyes staring down at me seemed to say, “If you want me to like you, trade.”

I wanted her to like me.

So without a word I relinquished my markers into her grasping hands. She thrust her package at me, in a way that told me that she was more than happy to part with it and rushed away. Quietly I re-opened the box on my lap and moved aside the crumpled tissue paper to see…an overly large pair of pink, silky underwear!

Quick, I pushed the paper back and shut the lid. I was sure my face must be as bright as the pink underwear themselves!  I sat the remainder of the evening quietly with them on my lap, mourning my markers and imagining showing my mother my ‘gift’ when I got home and the shame of admitting how I had got it.

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At seven, although too young to equate my experience with a heavenly Father who lovingly wanted me to understand some important truths, I still did learn my lesson!  A few of them being:

-Be satisfied with what you have. Greed doesn’t pay.

-Pleasing others comes with a price. Be sure it’s one you want to pay.

-People can disappoint us. But it’s worse to be disappointed in yourself.

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Was God present with my seven year old, disappointed and embarrassed self at that Christmas gift exchange? Does He really care about such trivial things? I believe He was and He is.

All these years later, I both laugh and cringe for that little girl. I laugh at the absurdity of the gift itself. Who saw fit to buy large sized underwear for a little girls’ gift exchange? I still see myself opening them and cringe at my naive belief that giving in to someone would make them truly like me and my already well formed greed at hoping to receive something even better. And yet I was only seven. Who of us hasn’t wanted others to like us for all the wrong reasons or not been satisfied with what we had and lusted for something ‘better’ even while not knowing what that would be? We are all so human.

I learned about my own inner temptations through a hilarious pair of pink underwear. Nobody could have explained the concept of sin to me better. Not much later I came to the knowledge of needing Jesus, someone much bigger than myself, to fight my own sinful desires and to bring me close to God. It was then I accepted Him into my life and He and I have been growing closer together ever since. Sure I’ve still stumbled and even fallen many times. But I no longer need to sit in shame. I can mourn my losses, learn from my lessons and move on.

Come to think of it, that was possibly one of my most meaningful gifts ever. It’s amazing what you can learn from a large pair of silky pink underwear!!! :D  ;)