Welcome to the 12 Pearls of Christmas blog series!
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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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