A successful young attorney said, "The greatest gift I ever received was a gift I got one Christmas when my dad gave me a small box. Inside was a note saying, 'Son, this year I will give you 365 hours--an hour every day after dinner. It's yours. We'll talk about what you want to talk about, we'll go where you want to go, play what you want to play. It will be your hour!'"

"My dad not only kept his promise," the attorney went on, "but every year he renewed it. That was the greatest gift I ever received. I am the result of his time."

* * *

Before Christmas, a Christian teaching in Africa had told his students how Christians, as an expression of their happiness and thanks for all Jesus has given them, give each other presents on His birthday.

On Christmas morning one of the natives brought the teacher a beautiful, lustrous seashell. When the teacher asked the boy where he had discovered such an extraordinary shell, the boy said he had walked many miles to a certain bay, the only spot where such shells could be found.

"I think it was wonderful of you to travel so far to get this lovely gift for me," the teacher said.

The boy's eyes brightened. "Long walk part of gift."

* * *

It's not what we give, but what we share, for the gift without the giver is bare!