This past weekend my wife Ruthie and I ventured out to a local farm to select a Christmas tree. After we had walked around a bit, we found a tree we liked, cut it down, and hauled it home. We brought it inside, plopped it in our tree stand, and tightened the screws until the tree stood firmly in place. Then we swept up the fallen needles and put water in the tree stand.
Afterwards my wife did what she does every year at that point. She wrapped our beautiful tree skirt around the stand at the base of the tree. At that point she said to me, “You should take a picture and send it to Cathy. She would probably love that.”
So that’s what I did. Before we hung any decorations on the tree, I took a picture of it with the skirt that Cathy Milner had given to us 25 years ago in Nova Scotia. Ruthie and I had moved there in 1994, when I accepted the call to pastor Wittenburg Baptist Church. Cathy was an Area Supervisor for the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, which hosted the annual Musquodoboit Valley Christmas Festival of Trees & Crafts. Every year, right after the festival was over, Cathy would give us one of the trees to use for our own Christmas tree, which was a real blessing.
But Cathy went beyond that and made us a Christmas tree skirt to go around the base of the tree. Up until that point my wife had used old curtains to wrap our Christmas tree stand. But we have used Cathy’s gift ever since.
A quarter-century is a long time. All five of our children are now in their twenties and out of our home. Yet throughout all their childhood years, Cathy’s gift graced the base of our tree. And it still does today.
Our Christmas tree skirt reminds me of a key principle we should remember:
A gift of kindness goes a long way.
I was reminded of this principle again earlier last week. One of my sons got a message out of the blue from a young man that now serves in the military, is married, and just had his second child. He’s a few years younger than my son, and they hadn’t talked for some time. But he sent my son a message saying,
You prob won’t remember this, but about ten years ago you … picked me up at school … to show me — quote: “the greatest combo known to mankind.” You drove me to dunks [Dunkin’ Donuts], got me a breakfast sandwich, then Cumbies [Cumberland Farms] to buy a Monster. Then you handed me both and you said “try it.” You’re right. It’s been a staple ever since. Haha.
He was right: my son didn’t remember this incident from a decade ago. But apparently it made quite an impact on this young man! Time would fail me to tell of other similar incidents. But here are two takeaways for us:
Never underestimate the long-standing impact of a simple gift.
Express gratitude to others for their past gifts to you.
You probably thanked them at the time. But a fresh word of appreciation might greatly encourage them. Paul wrote to his friends, “I thank my God every time I remember you” (Phil. 1:3). I’ll bet Paul’s note really encouraged them. If someone has been a blessing to you, let them know! You can be a blessing to them by letting them know how they have been a blessing to you.