Christmas gift of a homemade jewelry box takes on a deeper meaning

No doubt the primary reading material the day of Thanksgiving was the Black Friday ads, in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- hard economic times. Black Friday is the day marking the primary shopping season when they say retailers bring their books into the black.

I can just imagine the families whose post-Thanksgiving dinner tradition is sitting around the table scanning the ads and plotting the strategy to get the best deals on the best gifts for Christmas this year.

One Christmas while I was growing up, my family decided to give nothing but homemade gifts. If we didn't make it, we were not giving it. Unfortunately my mother was the only really talented person in our family. So when "the family" decided to give homemade gifts, it was my mother who was stuck with the homemaking. But I participated as best a kid could. I decided to make a jewelry box for Granny.

I decided to make a log-cabin box. I spent days scouring our backyard for just the right sticks. I somehow managed to find some green felt to be the grass and some ceramic animals for authenticity. With sticks in one hand and a hot glue gun in the other, I started making the best log-cabin jewelry box this side of the Mississippi -- no, the best one on the planet.

The first portion of Proverbs 22:9 says, "He who is generous will be blessed." I look back on that box that is still on display and think how generous Granny is to keep that ugly pile of sticks in her house. You can imagine there is dried-up glue everywhere. As for the grass, if the grass at your house was the same color as this cabin's grass, you would think it was being fed by nuclear waste, which would explain why the ceramic field mouse is the same size as the 12-point buck sitting in the front yard.

When I visit now and see that box on display, I have to question who really gave the Christmas gift that year. While the tag, homemade also, said it was to her from me, over the decades I've realized the real gift was from Granny. Her generous and encouraging spirit has brought her many blessings.

Happy shopping or gift making, whichever the case may be. May you be blessed this year from your generosity.

Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father and serves as the associate pastor at the First Baptist Church in Jackson. Read more from him at www.robhurtgen.wordpress.com.