Christmas Gifts
by Kathy Dillenbeck
December, 2000
The gifts we get on Christmas day are sometimes a surprise.
Occasionally we find that we cannot believe our eyes.
The size is wrong or color’s drab or there are too many spots
Or stripes are going sideways and not from bottom up to top.
We’re given things we do not want and things we do not need.
We’re given things which someone on TV has just decreed
Is something we can’t live without, is something we can use
To clean our floor or cook our meat or change a faulty fuse.
Invariably, there is a box with lots of different parts
That look the same, so it is hard to find the place to start.
We try the pieces here and there and then with great objection,
We search and search until we’ve finally found the right directions.
We slide end “A” into slot “B”, but cannot find part “C”,
But we keep going faithfully from “D” right on to “Z.”
When we’re all done, we find part “C,” but this part had no label.
There it was, right in plain view, upon the kitchen table.
We get our tools, take it apart, and put it back together,
But find a part that we once had is missing altogether.
By now it’s late and we are tired and nothing’s going right.
Is this what we look forward to on all our Christmas nights?
Giving gifts is lots of fun, but can we all admit
That getting gifts can send the calmest person into fits.
So if you’re giving Christmas gifts, be sure that you remember
To give a gift you’d like to get each year in late December.
A gift is just a token, a reminder of your love.
It helps to show you care for them just like our Lord above.
He came to earth on Christmas day so many years ago--
The gift of God to all mankind. Oh, what a way to show
The love He had for each of us by coming here to earth.
Oh, shout His praises everywhere! Oh, celebrate His birth.
The greatest Gift to all of us was our Emmanuel--
God with us, revealed to us, that very first Noel.