The Gift of a Gift

I have a grouping of books that I put out on my coffee table every year at Christmas. Many books have a Christmas message but these are my favorites. The difficult task this morning will be to keep my devotional focused on just one story but I’ll try. Some of these I have purchased for my own family and others were given to us a gifts from loving friends.

If you’re like me, I struggled for years in trying to find a way to share with everyone I met during the Christmas season the true meaning of Christmas. It’s then that I was given a book, The Legend of the Candy Cane, by Lori Walburg. It’s the story of a stranger who comes to a small town, unknown to all its residents, he is befriended by a young girl and sets about his life’s work. He remodels an old building and then begins to unpack dozens of barrels and crates. To his little friend’s amazement they are all filled with candy and the glass jars and bins he would put the candy in.

There were lollipops, gum drops, taffy and chewing gum. Chocolates and caramels, jaw breakers and licorice sticks. And then there was a candy the little girl had not seen before, it was a red and white striped candy crook. The candy shop owner told her it was a “candy cane” and it had special meaning. If you turn it upset down it looks like the letter J and J is for Jesus who was born on Christmas morning. If it is turned upright it looks like a shepherds crook and it was the shepherds that first heard the news of Jesus birth.

The shop keeper went on to tell the little girl that the red stripes on the candy were for the times that Jesus was beaten before He was crucified and the white candy represents how clean our lives become when Jesus takes away our sins.

So I took the “legend of the candy cane” and have printed little cards that contain the abbreviated story. With a purse full of candy canes I head out on my daily routine passing them out to folks along my way. I share them with grocery store clerks, folks at the Post Office, in the stores, I attach them to goodie trays I give to the mailman and the garbage collectors. And there’s a basket filled with candy canes at my front door for any and all who enter.

What was a kind gift from a friend has now become a seasonal tradition of sharing the true message of Christmas in the sweetest way. This is the little card I attached to each candy cane. If you’d like to use my idea I think it would be great! Share the “sweet” message of Christmas with all you meet.

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11 KJV