By Brenda Cannon Henley
In thinking about Christmas this year, the lovely gifts, delicious food, warm fellowship, special greetings, and all of my family and friends, I realized how very blessed I am. I have met and made friends with so many wonderful people, many of them through my writing during the long span of my career, and I treasure each of them.
I enjoy giving and receiving gifts with some meaning. Books have always ranked high on my list of favorites and I have many I dearly love. Cards (or any printing) always draw my interest and I keep every single one. They remind me of the friend(s) that shared them.
Some of my family and friends love every single day of the holiday season, while others not so much. I read a short story today that illustrated the entire gift giving thing to me. A missionary tried to teach the gift of Christ’s birth to the natives he was attempting to reach. He wasn’t entirely sure that they were getting it. He tried to come up with different ways to teach the truth he believed.
Christmas morning came and a new friend he had made in the village brought to the missionary a beautiful, perfect, glowing white seashell. The missionary knowing that these particular shells were only found in a certain place that was miles and miles away from where they were, said, “How did you get this? It is a beautiful gift, but I cannot imagine that you walked there and back to this beach just to give me this gift.”
The native smiled radiantly, and said, “Long walk — part of my gift to you.”
May we give and receive all of our gifts with love and genuine heartfelt appreciation and understand that the long walk or genuine sacrifice is a part of our gift.
Happy New Year to each of our readers.
Brenda Cannon Henley can be reached at (409) 781-8788, or
brendacannonhenley@yahoo com.
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