The Empty Stocking

Every Christmas morning from the time I was very small to now, my sister and I would clatter (we're a bit more graceful now) down the stairs in our Christmas Eve pajamas and scurry into the living room to open our stockings. They have always been my favorite I think because my parents loaded them with delicious goodies like cheese crackers and carob covered raisins.

We sit around and laugh and enjoy just being together, and watching each other open gifts - we have a rule only one person can open a gift at a time that way everyone can watch-. The dogs sniffing through the wrapping paper and nosing our stockings. They will always be warm, sparkling beautiful memories for me.

We remember to get everyone something, the relatives, the postman, the teachers at school, co-workers and friends- but there is someone we so often forget. We neglect to fill His stocking- we forget to even hang it on His birthday. Somehow in the shuffle and gifting of the holidays, the baby whose birth we are celebrating gets lost.

Let's ask ourselves what He would wish for most, and then each bring that as the Wisemen did and place it at his feet. What will you bring?


Love?

Devotion?

Patience?

Faith?

The outstretched hand of Tolerance?

Forgiveness?

Trust?

Come, let us place those gifts in His stocking. Let us surrender our hearts and lives this Christmas and put in our share. What have you and I been holding back, like a toddler gripping a chip of stone refusing to open our grip to receive the diamond being held out to us?

Give it all to Him.

Open your stocking and allow His peace to flood your life- but don't forget to fill His stocking. It's His birthday, after all, let's never forget that.