My dad was a giver. Birthday cards, Christmas cards, and lots of presents under the tree. He was the son of Italian immigrants with lots of brothers and sisters. As a boy in Butte, Montana, he physically had to learn how to fight to claim a corner to sell newspapers. Butte was a place of ill repute in the early days. Later on, he had to work in the mines. He lost the tip off his right index finger there. Following that, this Roman Catholic raised boy met and fell in love with a Methodist girl and they eloped on his 21st birthday. She was 16. My mom and dad almost made it to their 50th wedding anniversary, but cancer claimed my mother at the young age of 62. She gave so much to us.
I think I inherited his love of giving gifts. At Christmas, he gave gifts to the mailman, the garbage man, and the milkman. I have kept that tradition with the exception of the milkman – we haven't had one. I have a mail lady who is a joy. I've never met my garbage men, but I leave them gifts on the garbage cans on the Monday or whatever day before Christmas arrives. I would buy my husband multiple gifts more than I do (which are quite a few). Same with my sons, but after a point, they need or want less and less.
Friends get gifts – and give me precious things besides their friendships.
Giving gives me great joy. To experience smiles or great gratitude even for the little things is such a reward.
God has been so generous and gracious to me my entire life. Giving is a gift within a gift. Thank God for His Greatest Gift of Jesus for salvation and redemption. Unequaled. Unprecedented. Unstoppable. The Great I AM. Thank you is never enough for all the gifts that come with Jesus. Amen.
Into the Fire 
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