When I was growing up, the arrival of the Sears & Roebuck Christmas catalog marked the beginning of the most wonderful season of the year. My mom asked us to look through the catalog and let her know what we wanted. One year the catalog featured hamsters. The noble qualities of hamsters were praised to high heaven so, although I had never actually seen a hamster, I decided that that was the present that I wanted. I told my mother who received the news with what I thought was a less than enthusiastic expression.
While we often told my mom what kind of present we wanted, it was never a sure thing that we would get it. In the end, the exact present(s) that we got was still a surprise. So, in the days leading up to Christmas, I was filled with a great sense of anticipation over whether I would actually receive the Christmas “surprise†and enter into the joys of being a genuine hamster owner.
My grandmother and uncle Mixon (who was unmarried at the time) lived about a mile down the road from us. Often the shipment from Sears & Roebuck was dropped off at their house and held in safekeeping until Christmas arrived. I hesitate to call Mixon “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,†but he took inordinate pleasure in poking holes in our Christmas expectations. About a week before Christmas that year, he and my grandmother came to the house for a visit. When he saw me, he said, “When are you going to come down to the house and get your rats?†That’s when I knew that I was getting hamsters. I didn’t know whether to be happy about the hamsters or disappointed that there was no longer any element of surprise left for Christmas morning.
There has always been a note of surprise about Christmas. That was true of the first Christmas--the Messiah was born to a poor young couple from Nazareth, He was born in a stable and laid in a manger, angels announced His birth to shepherds in a field outside of Bethlehem. That first Christmas was filled with surprises.
Clyde Reid told of an old woman who had gone to sleep on a park bench on a cold morning. Her hands were folded in her lap, and on her hands were ragged old gloves. A well-dressed young woman came walking by, looked at the woman, and then stopped. She took off her expensive new gloves, walked over to the woman, and, without waking her, laid the expensive gloves on her lap before walking on. What a surprise when the woman awoke to discover the expensive gift that had been placed in her lap!
It was a far greater, and more wonderful, thing that happened on that first Christmas morning. Though most did not see, while we slept, God placed among us the most sacred and precious gift of all. He had sent His Son. What an astounding thing to do! He is the most wonderful and surprising gift that has ever been given at Christmas!
