Gifts have their meaning,
where a life cannot exist on its own,
by its own efforts or its own strength.
And so we need the hand of others, the giving hand,
and our giving hand is always needed.Once a year we practice the art of giving
with a light hand and a thoughtful heart,
so that the other person will realize that there is someone
to whom I am not indifferent.
…
When we give, we do what God did that night.
For no one can earn God’s closeness.
His love comes unexpectedly and makes us rich.
Jörg Zink- Grüße zur Heiligen Nacht
Happy Christmas!
I am moved by all the Christmas presents and greetings I’ve received. Not because of the gifts, of course I am very happy about them, but because of the giver. All kind of giver, here are some representative examples. Every gift, even if I did not mention it here, is appreciated deep in my heart.
Giver 1:
“Please do me a favour, and tell me what you want as Christmas present.”
This is a good idea to discuss about the gift openly beforehand, then the giver really want to give something that will be useful to me. I have listed out some stuffs that would be useful, so that she can choose one of them, just in case she was in Christmas stress, she always can get a bag of coffee beans easily in any grocery store. I drink coffee every day, and good quality coffee is not cheap. She ended up bought me everything on the list, including this “Magic Wand” – Zauberstab. Let us learn a new German word, Zauberstab, means Magic Wand, like the one belongs to Harry Potter; Its another meaning is hand blender, a kitchen utensil. Can’t wait to try on new recipe!
Giver 2:
“I have something for you, and I know you will like it!”
This kind of gift makes me curious and be ready for a surprise. It makes gift unwrapping a very special moment and we are sharing this special moment together. Also the thought behind the gift. A friend knew that I love poetry, so I’ve got this gift, a German poem for each day in the coming year 2023.
Giver 3:
A real surprise.
Some friends quietly, acted as if they’ve totally forgotten me, and patiently wait until I found out they’ve sent me a gift. I have put a lot of effort into The Journey (Blog, Youtube, IG) , not to aim for a “success” as in to measure from the count of follower or the money I am making, but to be authentic to the content I am passionate about, also the freedom to do it, including financial freedom. I am thankful for each cup of coffee you’ve bought, you see my effort, you show appreciation and share my burden through: https://ko-fi.com/thejourneywriter
There are also friends buy me a cup of coffee when we are hanging out in a café because of The Journey. I appreciate it a lot.
Giver 4:
The source of all gift – God.
There are gifts, cannot buy nor earn, only can receive from God. I will need to write a book to count this category of gift. For example: attended a dream comes true concert, to have my own instrument – Spinet, work as a freelancer musician (at least until next year September), not yet slept on the street because of being a freelancer musician, the chances to give organ recital, the wonderful Leipzig trip with inspiring colleagues and etc.
For gifts that out of my reach, I surrender my heart desires into His hand. I can do what I can, the rest I surrender. God is good, He only want to give me good gifts. Like my plant, I water them every day, no matter if they are blooming or just green. However, only God can make them “bloom and grow”. I am stealing this sentence from a song. It is our song of the night 😊 Sleep well!
