There are some things that cannot be caught inside boxes. Some things cannot be contained. Some gifts cannot be put under trees or wrapped in shining paper. These gifts have imperceptible value. So we leave them priceless, uncountable unmeasurable.
You can count the gifts under your tree, but can you count the stars that enshrine the night sky? Can you count the flakes that dress the winter? Can you count the things you have been blessed with?
This man does not count his blessings, but he counts the thing he’s lost in one aching silence. This is the first Christmas he is spending without his wife. He sits alone in an empty home. The driveway has not been shoveled and there are no gifts under the tree.
The door bell speaks of chimes when it rings. His daughter brings the turkey and his son shovels the driveway.
This man has lost his true love, but for Christmas he gets Family.
This girl spends Christmas in the hospital. Next Christmas she’ll be gone. Her blessings are like broken toys she is too weak to play with.
She counts the moments of her life that she will never get to experience. She counts the years of her life that she will never get to live. She draws tally marks, etched into her desperate heart, one mark for every single thing that she’s about to lose.
Tonight someone told her that she will celebrate next Christmas with Jesus. Her life is a temporary moment, short lived and evanescent. She trades it in return for an eternity.
She leaves behind her anger. This Christmas she gets Peace.
His children receive no gifts tonight. His soul is wearing thin because the money is beginning to run out.
This Christmas his family gets only Christmas dinner, bought with a dozen spare coins. His heart is so twisted in his frustration, so intwined with resentment, that he can hardly recognize it. Would his children resent him when he lacks to provide?
His family laughs and in his heart he finds a familiar golden thread. He cannot recognize himself but the things he loves are familiar.
He begins to untangle his anger. Unsnarling the resentment. He Unweave's his blessings and puts them up on a shelf so he can admire them. He begins to count them.
He cannot provide, but God provided for him.
What he gets this Christmas is unconditional. This Christmas he gets Love.
No one comes to visit her this Christmas Eve. She has no blessings to count because in her youth she traded those riches away. Now the things she exchanged them for stand like dusty furniture inside the great big house that is her soul. This house is not a home because no one is there to share it with her.
She can’t help but think that, maybe, if she had made a few better choices, someone would visit her tonight.
A stranger comes in place of the family she does not have. He reads to her from a book she’s never touched. He reads words like none she’s ever heard.
Her life is almost over, yet he speaks of new beginnings. Her soul is tainted in sin, but he tells her of renewal.
She leaves behind her dusty furniture. She castes her guilt away. For Christmas this women gets Forgiveness.
Just outside there sits a man.
The snow is made of crystals, but to him it’s only made of cold. This man’s coat is the only thing he has for shelter. The night sky is the ceiling in his home. The Winter nights are countless, and Christmas Eve is just another night left out in the cold.
Everything he feels is cold and made of ice. It’s always winter in his soul. His heart does not revolve through the seasons. No one has blessed him with their Spring.
The doors of the Church are left unlocked tonight. It’s warm inside, and he can’t help but listen to the message that they share. It is the words he hears that send summer to his soul.
His life was filled with darkness, but he leaves it all behind.
Only through the one that grants our blessings can one who once had nothing so suddenly gain everything.
This Christmas this man gets a Savior.
This Christmas I got the greatest gift of all. I got to become a published writer. Thank you for everyone who encouraged me to pursue my dream.
This will forever serve as a reminder to the blessing God has given me! He is the great gift giver. The granter of our blessings.
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