As I was decorating for Christmas, I was reminded of a Christmas several years ago.
When our son was young, he loved GI Joes. He had many of the GI Joes that had joints at the knees, ankles, wrists, and elbows. After he discovered how much fun GI Joes were, he found they were much more fun at Christmas. After I wrapped the garland on the around the banister, he figured out that garland was the best place to play GI Joes. They could hang from it, swing from branch to branch, store their walkie talkies, guns, helmets in it, even have their ‘wars’ in it. From the moment we put up the decorations that year, our son played on the stairs with his GI Joes every minute that he could.
When the new year came, he was disappointed that we could not leave the garland out all the time. While he was at school, I packed up the all the Christmas decorations; the lights, stockings, wall hangings, the Santa’s, the ornaments and tree skirt. Finally I needed to unwrap the banister, roll up the lights, the bows, and the garland, removing the best GI Joe playground, ever.
When I brought my son home from school, he was very disappointed. He was so disappointed that he didn’t play with his GI Joes for weeks. In February he finally decided to pull out his GI Joes to play with them in his room. He was frustrated that after so much time had passed, he couldn’t remember where he had put all his toy soldiers. They had fought the ‘good fight’, but now they were ‘missing in action’.
The next year when Christmas rolled around, we all laughed and joked about setting up the battlefield. Our son had outgrown the GI Joes and moved on to basketball, bikes, and games. The kids helped with all the decorations, put ornaments on the tree, and hung the stockings. The garland was left, so I sent the kids out to play, and I began to wrap the garland on the banister. As I was reminiscing, I wrapped the pine garland around and around. Suddenly something hit my foot. Then something else hit the floor at the bottom of the stairs. I shook the garland quite hard, and things came flying out. There were GI joe men, walkie talkies, guns, helmets, and grenades flying all over the place. I had accidentally packed up his toys with the garland. Although our son didn’t play with GI Joes anymore, he was glad to know where they were. He gathered up all the men, trucks, guns, walkie-talkies, and grenades and tried to figure out what to do with these toys that brought him endless hours of joy and happiness. With a little persuasion he gave them to a family friend. He felt good about sharing one of his favorite toys with someone else that would really appreciate them
“Don’t neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.” Hebrews 13:16
Sharing these toys that had entertained our son for hours on end was a great lesson for him. Although it was hard letting go of those toys, he knew that through sharing his favorite toys with others would bring them hours of happiness and joy.