"Christmas Eve Gift!" she answered.  Mother beat me to the punch.  Growing up it was always Mamaw calling and exclaiming "Christmas Eve Gift!"

 

I never knew what it meant until this year.  Evidently, there was a tradition among families where the one to give the "Christmas Eve Gift!" greeting was due a gift on Christmas Eve.  I don't know that Mamaw ever got a Christmas Eve Gift from us and I know my mother hasn't from me.  But it is a tradition we keep alive reminding me every year of the gift my Mamaw was in my life.

 

Mamaw's gift in my life was to teach me about THE GIFT.  She taught me in what she said and in how she lived.  She knew Jesus and not merely in some academic fashion.  Jesus was more real to her than her family.  He was with her through the tragic loss of her husband, multiple cancer diagnoses and congestive heart failure.  He was with her as she read Christmas cards in her easy chair.  He was with her as the last card dropped to her lap and her eyes closed in death.

 

There is not a Christmas that goes by that I don't think about Mamaw, "Christmas Eve Gift!" and most importantly, THE GIFT – Jesus.  And I know that as surely as He was with her in life, she is now with Him in death.

 

So "Christmas Eve Gift!" to you!  But above all may you receive and cherish THE GIFT of God this Christmas.

 

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

 

On behalf of all of us who labor together on your behalf at Faith – Merry Christmas!

 

Brent D. Summerhill