The Gift of Hope
Daniel Fusco
We ’ re constantly bombarded with a message — sometimes obvious , often subtle — from a million sources : “ Be afraid .” Life can start to feel hopeless . Thankfully , God is offering us the gift of hope . And because it comes from God , it isn ’ t just temporary .
If you ’ re a parent , you know that one of life ’ s greatest struggles is figuring out where the heck to hide all the Christmas presents . Sure , you can cram them up high in a closet somewhere or stuff them under the bed or up in the attic , but none of that works for long . The kids are always going to find the secret stash .
Our secret stash used to be in the downstairs closet . It was like the opposite of a secret . So Lynn came up with a better solution . She told the kids that Santa had given her a special request . “ With so many people in the world ,” she explained to the kids , “ Santa was wondering if he could drop off your presents early . It would really help him out .”
They had to agree , since no one wants to needlessly end up on Santa ’ s naughty list . My wife ’ s clever plan made it so we could buy presents whenever we wanted and that as long as we wrapped them , they could sit out in plain sight .
I know what you ’ re thinking , and you ’ re right : It wasn ’ t gonna be that easy ! Our new solution didn ’ t mean the kids weren ’ t curious . If anything , they were even more curious . So instead of wondering what they were getting for Christmas in the abstract , they were constantly guessing what was in specific boxes . It was a total blast . Annabelle reorganized the gifts almost daily . And she always had these far-out , crazy ideas of what she was getting . “ I can tellthis one ’ s a baby cow ” “ What a minute . This is a rocket ship !”
That ’ s one of my favorite things about gifts : the sense of expectancy they create . We can ’ t help but wonder what ’ s inside a gift , right ? And if the gift giver knows us really well , we ’ re usually even more curious and excited . Since
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