The Perfect Gift

Four year old Callie peered into her parents closet with eyes wide open and a giant smile spread across her face. Christmas was tomorrow and she wanted to wrap her fathers present in the most beautiful wrapping she could find; and she had spotted it, there in the back of her closet was a roll of shiny silver wrapping with pink hearts scattered all over it. This was the wrapping she had been hoping to find. She grabbed the gift, placed it onto the paper ( trying her hardest to be neat and careful like her teacher had taught her earlier that week in craft time). It had to be perfect. All of a sudden there was a noise at the door and her dad walked in. He saw her wrapping the box on the floor, grabbed the wrapping that was left, and threw it at the closet. He abruptly stood in front of poor little Callie and yelled at her; punishing her for wasting a roll of perfectly good wrapping paper for no reason. Her dad had been laid off of his job a few months earlier so money had been quite tight this Christmas season. Seeing his daughter wasting the wrapping paper was to him like wasting money; the thought of that infuriated him to no end. Callie started to cry as she took her box, went downstairs to her bedroom and sat on her bed. Even though she was very upset she decided to finish wrapping the gift. Looking at her very first wrapping job, Callie was pleased. She placed a tiny pink bow on top and snuck the gift under the giant Christmas tree that sat in her living room. The next morning Callie burst out of bed and ran upstairs; it was finally Christmas and she couldn’t wait to surprise her dad. She hadn’t seen him smile in a long time and she missed those smiles so much; maybe after receiving this gift her dad would be able to smile once again. She arrived to the living room and saw that the rest of her family was sitting around the tree, waiting for her. She went up to the tree and picked up the gift that she had been wrapping the night before. Callie brought the gift to her father and said, “Daddy, this is for you.” Her father was slightly ashamed by his earlier behaviour but he took the gift from his daughter and unwrapped it. His anger flared up again when he opened the box and saw that there was nothing inside; she had given him an empty box. Once again, he yelled at her and told her how rude it was to give an empty box to someone for Christmas and said, “Don’t you know that when you give a gift to somebody there is supposed to something inside? This is not a nice gift to give and was such a waste of money.” Callie looked up at her angry father and tears filed her eyes, she cried out to her dad and said, “ Daddy don’t you see? This box isn’t empty at all. I thought the best gifts came from the heart so I blew all the kisses I could into the box and wrapped it up quick before they could escape, the are all for you Daddy.” The father was absolutely humiliated; he quickly put his arms around his beautiful little girl and begged for her forgiveness, tears poured out of his eyes as he gave her the biggest hug he could. A couple months later the family was in a terrible car accident; and that accident sadly took callie’s life. The silver box that callie had given her father that Christmas now sits on his night stand. Whenever he is sad or discouraged he goes to the box and takes out one of callie’s imaginary kisses; always and forever to remember the love of his daughter who had placed it there. All of us have been given a box that is filled to the top with unconditional love and kisses. They are from our friends, family members, children and from God. We need to start putting our lives into perspective and really appreciate this gift that we have been given; no longer taking it for granted, as it is the purest gift anyone can hold. There is simply no other possession more precious than this.