Gifts from the Heart – December 10, 2000
People everywhere search for the “just right” gift to give to those they love. It may help to consider what gift you would give to your children or grandchildren if this were the last gift you could give them. A grandmother, pondering this thought, came up with a unique idea. She and her husband had experienced much happiness, even through times of difficulty, during their nearly fifty years of marriage. She wanted her grandchildren to have that same security and joy in their own lives. Lovingly she prepared her gift for each child—a framed reproduction of her own wedding photograph, accompanied by a carefully penned statement that expressed her hope that they too would one day experience the love she and their grandfather had enjoyed. She encouraged them to seek cautiously for the right mate and then work together as a married couple to make a beautiful life together. It was a gift from her heart.
Parents of a young family contemplated what they could give their children that would have lasting value. The words of Isaiah led their way: “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.”1 They gathered their children around them on Christmas Eve and told them of an experience when their prayers had been answered. Tears could not be restrained as their story unfolded. Then they promised their children that God will bless them too as they pray to Him. This father and mother then tenderly testified that God lives and loves them. It was a gift from their hearts.
The one whose birth and life we celebrate said, “My peace I give unto you . . . let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”2 To give the gift that comes from your heart—from your faith—can help your children and grandchildren feel unafraid, and let the peace of Christmas fill their hearts throughout a lifetime.
Program #3721
1. Isaiah 54:13.
2. John 14:27.