Merry Christmas from Pearl Girls™! We hope you enjoy these Christmas “Pearls of Wisdom”
from the authors who were so kind to donate their time and talents! If
you miss a few posts, you’ll be able go back through and read them on
this blog throughout the next few days.
We’re
giving away a pearl necklace in celebration of the holidays, as well as
some items (books, a gift pack, music CDs) from the contributors! Enter now on Facebook or at the Pearl Girls blog. The winner will announced on January 2, 2013 at the Pearl Girls blog.
If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls™, please visit www.pearlgirls.info
and see what we’re all about. In short, we exist to support the work of
charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe.
Consider purchasing a copy of Mother of Pearl, Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace or one of the Pearl Girls products (all GREAT gifts!) to help support Pearl Girls.
***
An Inexpensive New Christmas Tradition
By: Christy Fitzwater
I was invited to play some
Christmas carols on the piano for a senior-adult luncheon, but before I
got up to play they had a time for the seniors to share what they
remembered as their favorite Christmas gifts.
There was talk of new bicycles, a pony, and a new dress.
Then one elderly man took the
microphone and said, “An orange.” When he was young, an orange was a
rare treat. As he spoke, he got choked up and had to stop talking to
collect himself. He explained that his Sunday School was giving an
orange for anyone who memorized a Bible verse. He tearfully described
earning that delicious orange and slowly savoring every bite. When he
was done eating the orange, he put the peel on the furnace so it would
dry, and then he chewed on the peel.
He said with conviction, “We just don’t know how rich we are in this country.”
Christmas is usually the time
when I feel broke. I tuck away money for gifts all year long, but money
doesn’t go very far these days. My husband and I love to spoil our kids
and try to scheme how to get them a big-ticket item. We’ve enjoyed the
Christmas mornings when we’ve been able to enjoy watching our kids open
such gifts as an electric guitar or an iPad.
I stopped to imagine how our
whole family would feel if, on Christmas morning, the only gift under
the tree was a small basket cradling an orange for each of us. I think
we would feel disappointment and great loss. What would we do the rest
of the morning if not consumed by opening gift after gift? Where would
the focus be?
Our years of wealth make thankfulness for an orange seem ludicrous.
As I processed this man’s story, I
decided what we lack at Christmas isn’t money to buy nice gifts—it’s
gratitude to relish the simple treasures we enjoy every day.
This Christmas I am going to begin a new tradition
for my family, and I would invite your family to do the same. I am
going to place a small basket with four oranges under the tree, along
with a printed copy of the man’s story of the orange. We’re going to
pause at some point in the morning and each hold an orange while we read
the story. And then we’re going to hold those oranges up to our noses
and breathe in the fragrance God built into it, peel it slowly, and
enjoy each juicy bite. And while we eat it, we’ll each speak
thankfulness to the Lord for the grace He has poured into our lives.
In that moment, we’ll know how rich we are.
***
Christy
Fitzwater is a writer and pastor’s wife living in Kalispell, Montana.
She is the mother of a daughter in college and a high-school boy. Read
her personal blog at christyfitzwater.com.
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