When it came to opening Christmas presents my father behaved more like a sibling than a parent. I was thus often able to convince him that we should open presents a day early, hoping he would influence the tough sell-Mom. Our tradition was to always open gifts on Christmas Eve, but I always stressed that since Mom had to work that day, we should open our presents a day earlier so she too would be able to enjoy the events. If I had to describe myself as a youngster in just four words it would be: “always thinking of others.” Yeah, right!

I’ll never forget the day I came home from a half-day at school to find our house completely empty. My parents were still at work, which gave me the whole house to myself. I read some comic books, watched a little TV, ate some junk food and walked past the Christmas tree at least a thousand times, just staring at the presents that were neatly wrapped underneath.

Curiosity got the best of me, so I began searching for gifts with my name on the tags. As I began counting I couldn’t believe how many were mine, or how each varied in shape and size. I eventually mustered enough courage to pick one up and give it a little shake just to see if I could guess what the pretty paper, ribbons and bows were concealing.

Before I knew it, I had all my presents out from under the tree, shaking them and trying desperately to peek into the folds of the wrapping paper. My mother always wrapped presents so well you couldn’t see anything! So I had the idea of gently pulling some tape loose to see if this would reveal anything. Nothing. I pulled a little more tape here and little more there until finally I had unwrapped the whole present!

After wrapping it back up I decided to try another one. One by one I eventually opened all the gifts before rewrapping them and placing them exactly as they were under the tree! I must have been a victim of temporary insanity thinking my parents wouldn’t notice-my mother in particular. I’m convinced she had ESP. I mean, not only did she always know when I was doing something wrong; she also could foretell the future: she always told me what would happen when my father got home, and boy, she was always right on the money!

I was caught and confronted, yet my parents decided not to punish me; instead, they decided to make me reopen the gifts on Christmas Eve. To me that was the worst part of the whole situation. Although I tried to act surprised or very appreciative with each one I reopened, on the inside I was tormented with guilt and shame.

There are things God has in store for us that He is not willing to reveal at the present. This doesn’t mean that He will not allow us to possess them; it merely means that He has a timeframe for presenting them. Our problem is we always try to open these gifts before they are actually placed in our hands. Although the gift may be God’s will for your life, possessing it prematurely will cause the gift to become something NOT His will. He may allow you to see the beautiful wrappings that conceal it, He may even allow you to read your name on its tag, but until He places it into your hands, it does not belong to you.

Relax and be patient; even though His timing may seem ridiculously slow, it is always perfectly calculated. Remember, a gift is only a gift when given; the gift that is received before that is actually stolen.

God’s greatest gift was Jesus Christ; He was wrapped in swaddling clothing and lying in a manger long before the gift was actually given. Think of the birth of Jesus as the Gift that is sitting under the tree still wrapped and a mystery to us all; the day He died ON the tree was the day the gift became ours.

Mike Collins mikecollinsemail@yahoo.com