Chuck Larsen

During the last week of November, my heart always shifts from thanks-giving to gift-giving. Thanksgiving naturally turns into Christmas, when gratitude takes on wrapping paper and bows. Yet the real story of Christmas is not about Santa, Rudolph, or Frosty, and it certainly is not about maxing out our credit cards. It is about God’s greatest act of giving. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Christmas begins with a gift—not ours to others, but God’s to us. Our generosity only mirrors His divine example. We love because He loved us first, and we give because He gave first. But how do we keep that focus in a season when blinking lights, endless shopping lists, and carols about snowmen threaten to drown it out? I found a story that beautifully answers that question.

A woman once wrote about a small white envelope that appeared on her Christmas tree each year. It began because her husband, Mike, hated the commercial side of Christmas—the overspending, the last-minute panic, and the meaningless gifts. Their son’s wrestling team had competed against an inner-city team whose players wore worn-out shoes and no headgear. Mike felt compassion for them, saying, “I wish just one of them could have won.” The next day, his wife bought wrestling equipment for the boys and sent it anonymously to their church. On Christmas Eve, she placed an envelope on their tree with a note explaining what she had done in Mike’s name. His smile that morning was the brightest gift of all. Every year after that, she repeated the gesture—helping a different cause, placing a new white envelope on the tree. When Mike later died of cancer, she grieved deeply, but that Christmas morning, she found three more envelopes hanging on the tree. Their children had each carried on the tradition in honor of their father.

That white envelope is what Christmas giving should look like—a reflection of God’s love in action. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15). God’s gift did not come wrapped in gold paper but in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. The white envelope on that tree echoes heaven’s greatest message: love gives. When we give from the heart, expecting nothing in return, we share in the very spirit of Christmas. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). The white envelope may be small, but it holds something larger than any store-bought present—it holds the light of Christ’s love, quietly glowing through every act of kindness.

I am ready for Christmas—or at least as ready as I ever get. I have done most of my shopping, the lights are up on the house (thanks to a crew that knows what they are doing), and Kathy already has two Christmas trees standing tall, with the possibility of a third. We may get a bit carried away, but that is part of the fun. Our grandkids are coming, the dinner plans are in motion, and Christmas music fills the house like cinnamon in the air. Kathy keeps the classics playing almost nonstop—“Joy to the World,” “Silent Night,” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” It all brings back childhood memories of singing carols at church and hearing my mother’s old vinyl records spinning in the background. I love this time of year because the air itself seems to hum with music. Yet, amid all the melodies and merry chaos, I am still trying to focus on the true meaning of Christmas—something I attempt every year with varying degrees of success.

Speaking of carols, one of my grandsons wondered why we sing about “No L” at Christmas. I had to laugh, but it made me think. Every year, people seem to sing about “No ‘L’.” I thought, “Why in the world are we celebrating a missing letter?” Imagine a Christmas without the letter “L.” We could not talk about Jesus bringing eterna_ _ife into the wor_d. The ange_s could not sing, the shepherds could not watch their f_ocks, and John 3:16 would say, “For God so _oved the wor_d that He gave…” How can we share God’s _ove without the “L?” And what would Christmas be without _aughter? Without that letter, the conversation around the dinner tab_e would sound pretty odd, and our chi_dren would not know the joy of opening their presents! Christmas would lose its meaning, its music, and its heart. Fortunately, the song is not about missing letters—it is “Noel,” not “No ‘L’.”

The word “Noel” means “Christmas,” from the old French word naël, meaning “day of birth.” How fitting! Christmas is all about a birth—the birth of Jesus, the Light and Love of the world. The angels declared, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). The “L” we thought we lost is found perfectly in Him—Light, Life, and Love all in one. As John wrote, “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4). So, Merry Noel—and may your Christmas be full of love, laughter, and just the right number of L’s!