One of the best Christmas presents I’ve ever received came early in 1970. It was our son Chuck! He came on that year on December 1. We were in Greenville, South Carolina with my family in Omaha and Kathy’s family in 
California. It was just the two of us for over a year. But God gave us a great present on our second Christmas together. It made our Christmas 1970 very special. It was a difficult adjustment. We lived in a one bedroom duplex and the baby slept in a bassinet in the living room most of the time at nights, then in the middle of our double bed during the daytime. Our landlord really fell in love with the baby, but Chuckie (as we called him) didn’t care too much for her. He’d scream bloody murder when she tried to hold him. Marie would wrestle with him for a few minutes and then hand him back to Kathy. We thought it was funny, but she didn’t. (See the pictures at www.chucklarsen.com)
He was the best Christmas present I ever received, or the greatest gift because he taught Kathy and I how to love. He was helpless, messy, hungry, and demanding at times, but that never stopped our love for him. In 1 Corinthians Paul gave an expose on the Spiritual gifts but he concluded with “Faith, Hope and Love. And the greatest of these is Love.” I’ve always found it interesting how Paul put “love” amidst his discussion on the Gifts of the Spirit. Love is the greatest gift we can give or ever receive. During the days when our first son was born, Love was the only thing we really had to give, but it was more than enough. I was reminded of that on my anniversary just a few days ago when Kathy gave me a card. She said I’ve given her many things over the years but the “greatest and most treasured of all is your love!” And nothing can be truer than this! The greatest Gift anyone can ever give or receive is the gift of love.
Jesus is God’s perfect expression of His love for us. It’s the greatest gift of all. My prayer for myself and all is that His great gift will be our focus this year! And that all our gifts, tied and wrapped, will also be accompanied by love. John 3:16 tells us that God so loved that he “gave….” Then in John 15:13 we read, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Christmas is all about the perfect gift from the perfect giver of all good gifts.