GRATITUDE

It was that time of year again! I was asked, as so often I had been asked at Debenham High School, "What would you like for Christmas, Mr Reed."

I replied, "A pretty little daughter - like you, Emma."

Emma's response was hardly enthusiastic, "I'm too expensive - you had better have Jodi."

Jodi wasn't going to commit herself before gathering a little information.

"Have you got a Christmas tree?"

"No."

"Have you got any Christmas decorations?"

"No."

A long pause and then, "Have you got a tellie?"

"Yes."

"I suppose I could watch that."

God did not use the same criteria as sweet little Jodi to select earthly parents for his Son, Jesus. He did not choose parents who could give his Son expensive presents or much by way of entertainment. They were poor parents. However Mary and Joseph were grateful for their son. They went to the temple in Jerusalem and offered to God two pigeons, all they could afford, as a thank you. It is ironical that God's greatest gift to men should be acknowledged by this smallest of permitted offerings.

We have much to thank God for. I can recall Jack Finch telling me about the first meal he had as a boy after moving down from London to the Suffolk village of Hartest. It was Christmas dinner: bread and butter and swede. Today we in the West have so much but God gets precious little thanks.

One of the saddest things about being a school teacher is that young people are not grateful for their free education. I can remember showing a film to my pupils about the native way of life in the Amazonian rain forest and asking what, if anything, they liked about it. One disaffected youth's reply was immediate and straight from the heart, "They don't have to go to school." Every year I get a phone call from a nice female student from University College, London, asking if I will make a donation towards improving facilities at the college. I always do because I am so grateful for the free education I was given there in the 1960's.

On the last day of the Christmas term Scott Taylor, aged 13, left us to go and live in Plymouth. He was a keen cricketer and I coached him after school throughout the summer. At the end of school I walked slowly out of the front door to my car. Mrs Taylor was there waiting for me. She was waiting to thank me for all that I had done for her son and she gave me a kiss. It is the one and only kiss I have had from a mother of one of my pupils. It made me glad.

Mary and Joseph's little offering of two pigeons made God glad. I know because I am made in his image. Whenever we thank Him we gladden our creator's heart.

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