HERE IN THE REAL WORLD

The Little Box

The little box lay under the tree with all the big fancy boxes. Some were adorned with the fanciest of papers depicting Santa and all eight of the reindeer. Others had silver bells with sparkling snowflakes; you could almost hear the bells ringing. Yet, the little box had none of the frills of the bigger expensive ones. Its paper looked to be plain decorated with crayon drawings and glued on glitter by the wrapper. Its bows were not the big frilly kind as the big presents had, they were hand tied ribbon. As the students handed her the gifts, one by on the teacher opened each one. She marveled at each present; each kid knowing that they had out spent the other. Then, came the last present: the little box. Maria, obviously from a family of very modest means, handed her teacher the little box. Maria answered yes when asked if she decorated the paper the box was wrapped in. The teacher praised the drawings of the little girl and boasted about how the glitter made star might to this day lead one to Jesus. The teacher was careful not to rip the paper, but to neatly unwrap it at the taped seems as to not harm the pictures Maria had drawn. As the teacher carefully untied the ribbons unwrapped the gift Maria explained, almost as an apology, how she didn’t have money like the other kids for a big fancy present so she had given the teacher something of hers (what we’d call a recycled gift). That didn’t hinder the teacher in getting into the box. She opened it and inside found a small, old, almost worn out Bible that had been handed down to Maria from her grandmother.

This Christmas people will go in debt for presents. It’s almost as each person tries to outdo his neighbor in the buying of presents. The first Christmas gift came to us from poor parents, surely had they been people of any means they would have been able to find room at an inn: “there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7). Like the gift that Maria gave her teacher, the first Christmas gift was one given out of love: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16).

Paul wrote to the Corinthians “I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2). With the simplest of presents Maria proclaimed the same to her teacher. Without money, without fancy bows and high priced paper, the greatest gift mankind can have came to us in the simplest of ways. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. It’s called love.

Jesus said, “freely ye have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8). This season instead of trying to outdo your neighbor in buying gifts, is it not time to give freely? The greatest gift you can give anyone is the simplest. Show someone the gospel of Jesus Christ, for in it “is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16).

God Bless you all, and may you all be blessed in the New Year!

19 December 2005

Bobby Cohoon

North Carolina, USA

Little_sorrel@yahoo.com

YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A……….

JESUS!

In my youth I remember always hearing the phrase “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus” In the ignorance of youth I associated it with someone trying to prove to the state I love so dear that there was in fact a Kris Kringle. In later years I learned that Virginia was actually Virginia O’Hanlon, who had written a letter to the editor asking if Jolly Old St. Nicholas was real.[1] Through the years, The Jolly Old Elf, Santa, has been able to remain a constant of the Christmas Season. Jesus, however, has been all but barred from the holiday. Merry Christmas has been replaced with “Season’s Greetings.” Christmas trees are now, in many places, “Holiday Trees.” Nativity scenes can no longer be placed on public grounds, while images of Santa and the reindeer are allowed to fly through the city.

If Virginia O’Hanlon were to write her letter today it might go something like this:

Yes, Virginia, There is a Jesus

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no JESUS. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Jesus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see: “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed (John 20:29).” They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known (1 Corinthians 13:12). All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Jesus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy: “God is love” (1 John 4:16). Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Jesus: “In him was life; and the life was the light of men!” (John 1:4). It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then (Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven, Matthew 18:3), no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Jesus! You might as well not believe in Santa. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Jesus, but that is no sign that there is no Jesus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible” (Colossians 1:16). Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived cou
ld tear apart. Only faith, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond: “By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh” (Hebrews 10:20). Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding

No Jesus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood. “And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:33).

Bobby Cohoon

North Carolina, USA

http:littlesorrel.blogspot.com

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