Advent Thought 19

On the inside front cover is penned a Bible verse plus a personal word of encouragement and exhortation to be faithful in my calling as well as date...Christmas 1980; the giver had drawn my name in our pulling  names out of a hat.  It was written by a retired New Zealand Presbyterian pastor and his wife who had joined YWAM after retiring.  Their daughter was working out of the YWAM base in Austria where I was and so they came from Germany to spend Christmas with her and with us which meant Christmas would be extra special.  I suspect the last few years of their lives were probably more productive than all of the previous years of ministry.  They made a powerful impact upon the lives of families all over Europe but more than anything, they were a mature couple whose door was open and welcoming to one and all.  Don had been a WWII fighter pilot who had on one occasion been forced, if I recall the story, to parachute and landed in a hay stack in France.  He had the proper bearing that goes with being a Presbyterian pastor but this was offset by a laugh which rolled out of him and waved out to those around him making them at ease.  He had made a habit of every so many years taking a sabbatical and working menially in a factory so he would not lose touch with ordinary folk.  Mary, his wife, was a small almost fragile woman but spunky and feisty as could be.

I really treasure that New Testament because I can not open it without thinking fondly of that couple who gave it.   It's the source of the gift that makes the gift so special.  Can you glimpse a little bit of what it meant for those who "opened" the Gift of the first Christmas, the wonder, gratitude and awe that was then present and continued to be present in recalling, yes, the Gift but just as much, the Giver?