Merry Christmas

Captain’s Bloq: Stardate twenty-three, twelve, two zero one two. While rummaging through the archives, in search of some seasonal pearl of wisdom to share with you I found the following gem on my desk, staring up at me in all its poignant beauty. As I read it again it moved me once more, as it first did ages ago. For me it kind of puts a hectic world in some sort of perspective. It causes me to pause for a moment and reflect. You may have read it before. Perhaps you haven’t. It’s Christmas and I want to share it with you … “God bless us, everyone!”

The Gold Box

The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 5-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of expensive gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became even more upset when the child pasted the gold paper so as to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift box to her father the next morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy.” The father was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found the box was empty. He spoke to her in a harsh manner:

“Don’t you know, young lady, when you give someone a present there’s supposed to be something inside the package? The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said: “Daddy, it’s not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was full.” The father was crushed. He fell on his knees and put his arms around his little girl, and he begged her to forgive him for his unnecessary anger. An accident took the life of the child only a short time later and it is told that the father kept that gold box by his bed for all the years of his life. And whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult problems he would open the box and take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each of us as human beings have been given a golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, family, friends and God. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.

In a hectic work-a-day world we sometimes lose our way as we run to keep up. And sometimes as we run too fast we miss the signposts along life’s highway, signposts that point the direction to a balanced life. And sometimes in our haste we might stumble and we learn who our friends really are.

Friends are like angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.

From Mrs. Canada and I, to all of you, a very, very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and any other wonderful name you wish to place on this most gloriously introspective time of the year.

Oh, yes, lest we forget the spiritual origins of the season: