In his book, The Tale of the Tardy Ox Cart, famed communicator Charles Swindoll tells the following story…
A lady had a circle of friends for whom she really wanted to buy Christmas presents. Time slipped away and it was so busy at work for her she just wasn’t able to get to the store to purchase those gifts. Time was running out. So, not too many days before Christmas, she decided give up on the gift idea and just buy everybody the same beautiful Christmas card.
She went to the local gift store and hurriedly went through the now picked over stack of cards and found a box of fifty, just exactly what she wanted. She didn’t take time to reads the message, she just noticed a beautiful cover on it and there was gold around it and a floral appearance on the front of the card and she thought, “That’s perfect.” So she signed all of them, “With all my love!”
As New Year’s came and she had time to go back to two or three cards she didn’t send from the stack, she was shocked to read the massage inside. It said, in a little rhyme, “This Christmas card is just to say, a little gift is on its way!”
This little story reminds me that Christmas is about showing our love for others, especially by providing gifts as a means of expressing that love. Indeed, many of us will spend this week finalizing our shopping for those we hold dear.
Of course, we carry on these time-honored traditions because God Himself, at that first Christmas, gave to us a little Gift that proved to be the greatest Gift anyone could ever give to anyone else: His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, in the Person of a little Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
For that little Babe would grow up to become the sinless Lamb of God, Who would provide the redemption we needed for our sins!
Long before this Gift came into this world, God sent us a message through the prophet Isaiah, who in the sixth and seventh verses of the ninth chapter of his Old Testament Book, penned this wonderful prophecy:
“6For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”
In this prophecy, it was as if God was saying to all of mankind: “This prophecy is just to say, the perfect gift is on its way!”
STORY SOURCE:
Charles Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Ox Cart (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998), p. 81.
AVAILABLE ONLINE AT:
https://books.google.com/books?id=Mm_U1VqZ9qoC&pg=PT72&lpg=PT72&dq
=%E2%80%9CThis+Christmas+card+is+just+to+say,+a+little+gift+is+on+its+w
ay!&source=bl&ots=BS_7UrtJHj&sig=C-vbIySCgmYC2VweeK_9Qa_1WkE&hl
=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjG3JTulZLYAhXB6SYKHX-gDTUQ6AEIKTAA#v=
onepage&q=%E2%80%9CThis%20Christmas%20card%20is%20just%20to%20say%2C%20a%20little%20gift%20is%20on%20its%20way!&f=false.
SCRIPTURE SOURCE:
http://biblehub.com/niv/isaiah/9.htm.
A lady had a circle of friends for whom she really wanted to buy Christmas presents. Time slipped away and it was so busy at work for her she just wasn’t able to get to the store to purchase those gifts. Time was running out. So, not too many days before Christmas, she decided give up on the gift idea and just buy everybody the same beautiful Christmas card.
She went to the local gift store and hurriedly went through the now picked over stack of cards and found a box of fifty, just exactly what she wanted. She didn’t take time to reads the message, she just noticed a beautiful cover on it and there was gold around it and a floral appearance on the front of the card and she thought, “That’s perfect.” So she signed all of them, “With all my love!”
As New Year’s came and she had time to go back to two or three cards she didn’t send from the stack, she was shocked to read the massage inside. It said, in a little rhyme, “This Christmas card is just to say, a little gift is on its way!”
This little story reminds me that Christmas is about showing our love for others, especially by providing gifts as a means of expressing that love. Indeed, many of us will spend this week finalizing our shopping for those we hold dear.
Of course, we carry on these time-honored traditions because God Himself, at that first Christmas, gave to us a little Gift that proved to be the greatest Gift anyone could ever give to anyone else: His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, in the Person of a little Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
For that little Babe would grow up to become the sinless Lamb of God, Who would provide the redemption we needed for our sins!
Long before this Gift came into this world, God sent us a message through the prophet Isaiah, who in the sixth and seventh verses of the ninth chapter of his Old Testament Book, penned this wonderful prophecy:
“6For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”
In this prophecy, it was as if God was saying to all of mankind: “This prophecy is just to say, the perfect gift is on its way!”
STORY SOURCE:
Charles Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Ox Cart (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998), p. 81.
AVAILABLE ONLINE AT:
https://books.google.com/books?id=Mm_U1VqZ9qoC&pg=PT72&lpg=PT72&dq
=%E2%80%9CThis+Christmas+card+is+just+to+say,+a+little+gift+is+on+its+w
ay!&source=bl&ots=BS_7UrtJHj&sig=C-vbIySCgmYC2VweeK_9Qa_1WkE&hl
=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjG3JTulZLYAhXB6SYKHX-gDTUQ6AEIKTAA#v=
onepage&q=%E2%80%9CThis%20Christmas%20card%20is%20just%20to%20say%2C%20a%20little%20gift%20is%20on%20its%20way!&f=false.
SCRIPTURE SOURCE:
http://biblehub.com/niv/isaiah/9.htm.