The Special Gift…

The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old

daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight

and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to

put under the Christmas tree. Never the less, the little girl brought

the gift to her father the next morning despite the earlier overreaction,

but his anger flared again when he found the box was empty. He yelled at her,

"Don't you know that when you give someone a present, there's

supposed to be something inside it?"

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh,

Daddy it is not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he

begged for her forgiveness. It is told that the man kept that gold

box by his bed for years and whenever he was discouraged,

he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each of us as parents has been given a gold

container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children.

There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.