Unwrapping the Greatest Gift

This quote comes from a book given to me by one of my students for Christmas:

Teaching is one of the few professions that permit love. --Theodore Roethke

Third graders are so easy to love (most days, that is). They're so easy to please. You let them watch a movie, give them a snack and a gift, and they make exclamations such as, "You're the best teacher ever!" and "This is the best day of my life!" It's such a pleasure.

All month long, we've been talking about how Jesus is our greatest gift. I know that they "know" it in their heads, and I pray that they know it, in their hearts. I had them write a paragraph about Christmas, and one boy wrote this:

I will remember the real meaning of Christmas this year because my teacher reads a book it tells the real meaning of Christmas and is a countdown.

So we finished the countdown yesterday.

Here are a few of Ann Voskamp's thoughts on the real meaning of Christmas, taken from Unwrapping the Greatest Gift. I pray that all of us can remember this truth this Christmas.

Christmas isn’t about getting something big and shiny. It’s about God’s doing whatever it takes to be with us – and our doing whatever it takes to be with Him. 

All the other love stories don’t compare to this one – because this is the truest, realest story that ever was. 

God is with us. Jesus is with us. Jesus stays with us. The Christmas candle burns hot tonight, giving its brilliant light, because Christmas goes on forever. Because we have Jesus with us – the greatest Gift of unfailing, unbeatable, unstoppable love that we can keep unwrapping all our days.