When my very precocious and oldest son, Geoff was not quite 3 years-old, I decided that he could understand the ‘true meaning of Christmas’.  I began by telling him ‘what if at his third birthday party everyone brought gifts with great hoopla for each other, but no one brought him a gift?’  Scowling deeply, he said, “I wouldn’t like that!”

I told him that that is exactly what we are doing at Christmas time if we get each other gifts, but neglect to get a gift for Jesus.  When I asked Geoff what he thought we should get for Jesus, he mumbled, “Oh, bread”.  Bread!  All I could think of was that ‘I had the weirdest kid on earth’.   But as I got to thinking about it, that was the answer!

We immediately started making small loaves of banana breads together, got them cooked, cooled and wrapped up complete with a bow, and the next day headed to a nursing home to ‘bless’ the dear older folks there.  But that turned out to not be the ‘blessing’, or the gift.  As soon as the workers saw what we had, the breads were snatched away from us and taken to the kitchen.  I didn’t realize that most of these folks were on some kind of restrictive diet.

What the ‘gift to Jesus’ turned out to be was watching these precious ones rub Geoff’s soft cheeks and pat the curls on the back of his head.   And the bonus was watching them gently hold (with assistance!) my second son, 5 month-old Todd.  Tears streamed down all our cheeks while several told me that they hadn’t seen a baby or small child in many, many years.  I will always be glad that Geoff suggested ‘bread’ for the gift for Jesus, but what the Lord intended all along was giving the ‘gift of ourselves’.

That was our first Birthday Present for Jesus.  If you don’t already have a designated present for the Tiny Babe, Infant King – Savior, perhaps this would be a good time to start a great tradition with your family.

“. . .   they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  –  Matthew 2:11