When I was a boy, I spent hundreds of hours reading Sears, Roebuck catalogs. I wanted almost everything, and if I didn’t know what something was, I’d learn enough about it to want that, too. I especially loved the holiday issue. I still recall the smell of the ink in those catalogs. I associated the smell with the pastel-colored chocolates advertised near the front.

I once had a student named Atlanta who also loved that Sears holiday catalog. When she was a child she utterly denied the truth of Jesus’ saying “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Atlanta didn’t want to give – she wanted to get, and she wanted everything.

One Christmas morning, she told me, she sneaked downstairs before dawn to enjoy the lights on the Christmas tree. Then she decided to open just one present. Then she opened another. Then she opened all the presents with her name on them.

But it wasn’t enough, so she began opening the presents meant for her younger brothers and sisters. She ended up opening every present under the Christmas tree! Then her parents entered the room.

No, they didn’t do what you are thinking they did. Instead, they took the family away for a leisurely Christmas breakfast, leaving Atlanta behind to rewrap the opened presents in colorful newspaper comics scavenged from the garage. Doing this helped her catch a glimpse of the love that leads to giving, and when her family opened their presents later that morning, she felt as if it were she who had given the gifts. She had learned the blessing of giving.

By Ed Christian, christia@kutztown.edu

Ed teaches English and biblical literature at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.