Christmas Mystery

Christmas gifts are all tied up with joy and anticipation and expectation. And, sometimes, wonder and confusion.
“Is that for the dog’s bed or is it for me?”
“Is this a blanket or a shawl?”
“Who gave me this, um, gift?”

Handmade gifts can be thoughtful and special and crafted with love. Or not.

Once, I, as a teenager, saw a great idea in a magazine. There were instructions for making cute elf-type house shoes. The idea was to use a sock as a pattern. Trace around the sock on a piece of paper and then add seam allowances and a cute, turned up, elvish toe. Cut out that pattern and use it to cut out fabric pieces, a set for the house shoe and a set for the lining. Sew around the foot part of the shoe and the lining. Nest those pieces together. Then turn under the top edges of the shoe and lining and sew them together. I added a nice embroidered edging on the tops and folded them over to make a cute cuff. Then I wrapped them up and waited for Christmas morning. When JoAnne opened them up, I was all ready for exclamations of how clever I was.

However, the sock I had used for the pattern was one of her Sunday socks, which was rather elasticized. In other words, they ended up waaaaay too small for her feet. But, it turns out that they were just perfect for her baby doll. So, not a complete disaster. But also not a great gift.

JoAnne is a wonderful shopper and always sends interesting gifts, which, as she will tell you, often come from half-price tables and bins. Or a Daiso store. Mid-December I got a box from her, full of wrapped gifts. And instructions. The packages that said, for example, “Gayle, from JoAnne and Jim,” were for under the tree. Packages that had just a name on them were for the stockings. I put all the gifts where they belonged.

On Christmas morning, I got a book about Grandmothers. My stocking gift was harder to identify. It was heavy, and it was roughly textured. I was uncertain what it was, exactly. Everyone weighed in. It seemed like it might be a paper weight. Or, I thought, maybe one of those pumice-like stones that are used to scrub away dead skin from heels and elbows. And there was some conversation about the symbol on the top.

“It looks like some kind of logo,” was one idea. “Yes, it looks familiar, but I can’t place it,” was another comment.

A couple of days later, when I was cleaning up and putting things away, I thought that I would take a photo and send it to Jeremy, the graphic designer, and see if he recognized the logo, as that’s sort of his job.

I got my phone to take the picture and aimed it at the enigmatic gift and thought, “oh.” It’s a lower case letter “g,” in a very fancy sort of font. We’d been looking at it from the wrong direction. I sent the photo to Jeremy anyway, and called him to see if he recognized the font. He didn’t know the font, but he did recognize it as a “g.”

I talked to JoAnne a few days later, to ask what exactly it was. She thought it was a paper weight, too. It came from a bargain table that had several other, identical, items, but there was a variety of letters available. She said that she did know it was a “g,” but that might have been because it was surrounded by a lot of other letters.

We had a happy Christmas. The tree’s still up. There doesn’t seem a reason to rush.

Sometimes we give the gifts. Sometimes we get the gifts. Jesus gave us the best gift. And because of that, we are the gifts.

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

 (New International Version)

 Each of you has been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. So use your gift well.

(Contemporary English Version)

Every believer has received grace gifts, so use them to serve one another as faithful stewards of the many-colored tapestry of God’s grace.

(The Passion Translation)

1 Peter 4:10

I couldn’t decide which one I liked best.