Ever seen pictures of yourself or your siblings when you
were real little and celebrating Christmas. Is there one of a small toddler
opening a package only to find that the wrapping and the box are much more
exciting than the regular gift? No doubt we seem to grow out of this as we get
older, but do we really ever get more excited than we were about simple
packaging allowed our imagination to transform it into anything we want.
When I look back at some of my biggest Christmas gifts over
the years, I can’t help but realize they are really nowhere to be seen anymore.
Our ping-pong table from Christmas ’96 was sold the next year. Our basketball
hoop from Christmas ’97 was sold after 6 months. All three video game systems
have entered retirement and are now unplayable. Even my I-Pod from two years ago
is pretty much collecting dust. What happens to these expensive gifts we often
hope with all our might we receive only to not really care about them after a
fairly short time?
There is one gift however that I have received in the past
years that I know is not sitting on some shelf or having been thrown away. A
few years ago, my family started a tradition of buying the gift of life for
families in developing and impoverished situations. An organization called Heifer
International allows you to “buy” various types of livestock that they then
give to families in need. These families use everything from rabbits to Oxen to
provide year after year for their family. They are not only given one or two
meals or a bit of money, but the livestock are actually like a small business
that the family uses to begin to lift themselves out of miserable situations.
If you would like to give or receive a gift that will surely
keep giving long after the tree has been thrown away (or put away since I was allergic
to real trees!), then you should look at Heifer’s catalogue and consider
sharing one of their special gifts this year. Here is the website link or click
on their link at the top of our Blog page: http://www.heifer.org/
