The Lasting Effect Of Small Gifts

Serving – December 2011 – Grace & Truth Magazine

A CHRISTMAS REMINDER

The Lasting Effect Of Small Gifts

Have you noticed the significant increase in the size and value of gifts these days? Looking at Christmas or birthday photos of a few decades ago, in which beaming children are shown uncovering a stuffed animal or a toy truck, the contemporary observer is reminded that our culture at that time was poorer and simpler, and that it took much less to please eager recipients of gifts.

Recently at a restaurant, I watched as several women filed back to a banquet room to attend a baby shower. Some of the wrapped gifts were so bulky that it made it challenging for the women to maneuver into the room. In these more prosperous times when bigger seems better, we must never forget that the value of a gift is in the giving and not in the size or cost of the gift itself.

During my year of study at a biblical seminary about a decade ago, an affable older couple invited me to their apartment for dinner. While we were not particularly close, at the end of a good time together, they presented me with a small, handmade bookmark. There is the sad likelihood that these casual friends would have already faded from my memory, as school friends tend to do, but because of their gift, their gracious memory lives on.

Of all the bookmarks in my possession, (and I have a lot of them) the one they gave me is the only one I keep track of. Although it is small and of simple workmanship, I treasure this laminated photo of a single bird perched on a metal fence with a prairie scene in the background. What makes this particular bookmark different from all the others is that it represents the kindness that prompted this couple to give it.

Small gifts are often powerful tokens of tenderness that reach well beyond their intended purpose. When we pray we often thank God for little things. We shouldn’t feel spiritually immature for seemingly small prayers. “Thank you Lord for this day,” “Thank you for the food Grandma prepared” and “Thank you for that acceptance letter from the seminary” are powerful prayers, but not because the gifts we received were overwhelming. no, the power of those prayers is in the humble thanking God for His care and love that prompted those simple blessings.

What makes us love God more is knowing that He went through a process of giving, when He gave His only son to the world. Jesus didn’t just show up one day on His own without purpose. He was given for a reason, and that has made all the difference! Why? As an expression of His love: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).

Last summer I served as a teacher of 7th and 8th graders during our church’s annual Vacation Bible School. On the last day of that hot and tiring week, one of the quieter students presented me with a homemade card. My name was on the cover, composed of colorful letters, individually cut out. I was so touched, I told her I would probably still have her card twenty years from now, and I probably will. The time will come when the theme of that VBS will have evaded me, and the peppy songs will be forgotten. But among my valued possessions will be a brown card with some kind words inside, written to me.

Is there some small gift you have avoided giving because it seems too small? Is there a card you’d like to send someone, but haven’t? Have you created something small, like a bookmark, that could be of lasting value to someone? As I look around my office, I pause to give thanks for little gifts: Thank you, Lord, for that calendar Martha gave me. Thanks for that little calculator from the inner-city student. Thank you for the scenic coffee coaster, and also for those encouraging words spoken to me after church today.

And while I’m thanking you, Lord, I ask that you remind me each day about the lasting effect that small gifts given to others might have. You gave us a small gift, Your Son as a “baby ... lying in a manger” (Lk. 2:12), that has become the most memorable gift of all.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tim Schultz is the pastor of a congregation of believers in Aurora, Ohio.