Every year, all of my co-workers at my office give each other Christmas presents. It’s always super fun walking into work and trying to guess who put what present or gift bag on your desk the night before. It’s even more fun to open them and see whats inside, especially if it’s chocolate! This year I wanted to give all of my co-workers a gift that had meaning. Thinking back, I couldn’t even remember what I gave everyone last year. Some meaningful gift ha!
I had bought 6 wooden spoons when I was in Peru visiting my Compassion Child back in May. I really did have the best intentions to paint them and give them to my co-workers as a souvenir gift upon returning from my trip, but it just never happened. They got wrapped up in the exact same bag I bought them in and then were stuffed into the back of my craft drawer. They sat like that for 6 months. Come December, it was a great motivator to help me finally paint the spoons so I could give them away as Christmas presents. I took a few hours one weekend to sit and paint color-blocked tips onto the spoons. I just free handed where I wanted the color to end and then painted a few coats on each spoon.
After they were painted, I still felt like there needed to be more oomph to the spoons, something was missing. That a simple, plain spoon wasn’t enough. I appreciated the hand-carved spoons with pretty colors but I was afraid they would just be another gift thrown into the back of a junk drawer (we all know which presents I’m talking about). I wanted the spoons to have meaning. Then one day when I was daydreaming about crafty/creative things (like I do alot), God gave me the idea to tie pictures I had taken in Peru onto the spoons with prayers written on the backs on them. So began the most meaningful gift I had ever given! I had pictures I had taken in Peru printer onto 4×4 Instagram sizes at, Southern Photo, a local photography store, which cost .40/each. Then I wrote prayers and verses on the back to hopefully be prayed over by my co-workers for the families and kids in the pictures.
When I say it’s the most meaningful gift I have ever given, I say it from a humble heart. The gift is to the families and kids I met in Peru. I believe prayer is the best gift that you can give anyone. It’s eternal and impactful. The spoons might be forgotten, the pictures might be thrown away, but that prayer is eternal, and it’s never forgotten by God. I care deeply for my Compassion Child and those kids and families I met in Peru, even if they feel forgotten about. I want them to feel and know that I care for them by having others care for them by praying.
Prayer is one of the most meaningful gifts you can give, especially for complete strangers. We might never see the results or fruits of those prayers, but I know deep down, it’s one of the most meaningful gifts they could ever receive. It’s a free gift, just like Jesus dying for us on the cross makes us freely forgiven, but it cost Him everything. This spoon gift may have only cost $20 total, but it doesn’t even compare to what has been freely given to us. God’s gift to us is redemption through Jesus Christ. And that is the most meaningful gift anyone could ever receive.
Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Romans 3:24
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Romans 8:32
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