We got my grandson a toy garage for Christmas last year and I must confess that his dad and I got hours of enjoyment on Christmas day, taking all the components out of the box and linking them all together, it wasn’t a very practical present, because once built up it wouldn’t fit in their car to be transported back home, so the garage lived at our house for a while unitl we could deliver it in our car. During the two or three weeks that we were custodians of the garage, I was compelled to keep running cars down its track and I was rather dissapointed when it was returned to it’s rightful owner.
The garage reminded me of a gift my brother and I received one Christmas a long time ago, that too was a garage and like our gift in 2019, was perhaps not clearly thought out. Unlike me, some fifty years on, who simply snapped some bits of plastic together, my dad spent hours in his spare time in our garden shed on dark nights lovingly cutting every piece of wood to fit perfectly together, he had painted the garage in grey, blue and red, sign written on it, lovingly made small petrol pumps and even a fully operating lift to winch the cars up to the top floor. The garage stood proudly as a fathers love for his sons on Christmas day, the fruits of his hard labour.
I’m not sure that as a child I ever fully appreciated the love and care that went into that gift many years ago and for most of the time, I just took it for granted, but all these years later, that garage still stands as an illustration of my relationship with God. I saunter through life most of the time, simply taking everything for granted, without a thought for the creator, for the gift of life we have extravagant and abundant, lovingly created by God, why, because he loves us and wants only the best for us.
That garage was never practical, it stood about three feet tall and had a footprint of about three feet by four, which was never ideal for the small terraced house we lived in, I guess that thought never crossed my dads mind as he slaved away for us, he wanted the very best and he created it. The Garage eventually went to the National Children’s home, where no doubt other children will have loved it, played with it and no doubt abused it as we all do, with little thought for the creator.
Let us stop a moment on this Christmas Day and reflect on God’s gift to us in the shape of a small child, who would go on to change the world forever, a gift given in love and often never appreciated. We have talked so much during 2020 about what we have lost, but let us remember and give thanks for what we have!
Happy Christmas!