(Visit my new ministry/small business website at www.LastWordOnMoney.com)
To
my six-year-old mind, it was a marvel of the dawning space age. Just by turning a couple of knobs I could
create pictures on a gray screen and even write my name—then magically erase it
with a shake of the device. An Etch-a-Sketch. And I had asked Santa for one for Christmas.
That
Christmas stands out in my memory because it was when I learned the truth about
Santa Claus, thanks to some careless concealment of the Etch-a-Sketch. You see, my bedroom was really a
multi-purpose room. Our house, with six
people residing there, was very small; so I shared a room with my brother…and
an ironing board with other household accessories…and a towering piece of
furniture with drawers and a place to hang clothes that had been converted to a
catch-all for miscellaneous out-of-season family clothing. And it was in that space that someone in my
family hid the Etch-a-Sketch, waiting until Christmas Eve to put it under the
tree. So my coveted toy was literally
six feet away from my dreaming head each night.
Until I innocently went digging in the clothes pile one day and put two
and two together to discover who Santa really was.
The
story of my discovering another Christmas truth—that it is better to give than
to receive—is not so easily traced. I didn’t
grasp it as a six-year-old, maybe not as a twelve-year-old. But I think at fourteen, as my mother lay
dying at Christmastime and I tried to think of an appropriate gift for her, it
began to dawn on me. She never got to
use what I bought her for Christmas that year, and my giving it brought me no
joy, although there were plenty of other reasons to be sad that holiday. But I realized then that the people I love
will not necessarily always be around, that their lives may be full of pain and
secret angst, and who am I to expect something from them? Shouldn’t I be doing what I can to make them
happier?
I
like to read and talk and write about money.
I like to help people manage their money and live more comfortably. That’s why I write this blog, do volunteer
work, and have a ministry devoted to it.
But money is not everything or even the main thing in life. It can sure make life easier sometimes, but
it can just as easily bring misery. But
giving to others, helping others…I’ve never known that to not pay handsome
dividends. Remember that this Christmas.
Merry
Christmas, friends.
Until next
time,
Roger
“Nevertheless,
there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress….The people walking
in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep
darkness a light has dawned….For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government shall be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:1,2,6 NIV*
*Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New
International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
