The story goes that 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.
Nevertheless, the little girl
brought the gift to her
father the next
morning and said "This is for you,
Daddy." He was
embarrassed by his
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 is 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 totally crushed. He put his
arms tenderly 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
humans, have been
given a gold
wrapped
box filled with unconditional love
and kisses from our
children,
friends,
family or God. There is no more
precious possession
anyone could hold.