Some time ago I received two beautiful love gifts.  One was  a tiny wooden cross from Bruce, Dawn and Rainey Blomgren, who had just returned from an Amazon Medical Mission trip to Peru.  This gift will always remind me of how much God loves me.  The second was from a group of Prayer Shawl knitters who gave me a lap robe to remind me of God's comfort, warmth and healing.  In just five years this group has given over 500 prayer shawls.  What a blessing they are to others.

Friend of Dial Hope, don't lose sight of the Christmas gifts that always fit... the gifts that money can't buy.  What are these gifts?  Try these on for size.  The first is the gift of TIME, uninterrupted time just for children, college students, parents, grandparents, shut-ins, people who are sick, lonely, grieving.  The second is the gift of KINDNESS.  We don't need to be thoughtless or rude.  Only when others see your kindness do they really begin to see your faith.  The third is the gift of APPRECIATION and ENCOURAGEMENT.  I am convinced that people are hungry for affirmation.  Every person is a child of God.  And the fourth is the gift of LOVE.  As the hymn writer so aptly put it, "Love Came Down at Christmas."  May we remember that the best gifts of all are free.

Prayer:  Loving God, in the deep, dazzling darkness of winter we thank you for the clues to Christmas...  Lights that pin the night with colors, songs that sound like angels improvising, red poinsettias, trees that give praise, carols tuning our hearts for joy, ripples of hope in a child, the Christ child.  How Great Thou Art!  In Jesus' name.  Amen.