The nicest gift you’ll receive this Christmas

THERE was a man who worked very hard just to keep food on the table for his family. This particular year, a few days before Christmas, he punished his little five-year-old daughter after learning that she had used up the family’s only roll of expensive gold wrapping paper.

As money was tight, he became even more upset when on Christmas Eve he saw that the child had used all of the expensive gold paper to decorate one shoe-box she had put under the Christmas tree.

He also was concerned about where she had gotten money to buy what was in the shoe-box.

Nevertheless, the next morning the little girl, filled with excitement, brought the gift box to her father and said, “This is for you, Daddy!”

As he began opening the box, the father was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, now regretting how he had punished her.

But when he opened the shoebox, he found it was empty and again his anger flared. ‘Don’t you know, young lady,’ he said harshly, ‘when you give someone a present, there’s supposed to be something inside the package!’

The little girl looked up at him with sad tears rolling from her eyes and whispered: ‘Daddy, it’s not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was all full.’

The father was crushed. He fell on his knees and put his arms around his precious little girl. He begged her to forgive him for his unnecessary anger.

In a very real sense, each of us has been given an invisible golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, family, and friends. There is no more precious present anyone could receive this Christmas. ANTHONY WOODS,

Ennis, Co. Clare.