Day 15: Little Drummer Boy
Come they told me
A new born king to see
Our finest gifts we bring
To lay before the king
So to honor him
When we come
I am a poor boy too
I have no gift to bring
That’s fit to give our king
I played my drum for him
I played my best for him
Then he smiled at me
Me and my drum
“I have no gift to bring that’s fit to give our king.”
Who can say that they haven’t felt this way at some point in their lives? And I don’t mean only lacking the financial resources to gift someone appropriately, but honestly couldn’t imagine a gift deserving of the person or persons it was intended for?
Every Christmas, I bake loaf after loaf of pumpkin chocolate chip bread to give as gifts, just as my mother did before me. If you know me, you get a loaf. It’s a small thing, but I bake it with love and I look forward to giving it every year.
One year, my neighbor had a baby, her third, in early December. I’d attended her baby shower a few weeks prior and given her a proper baby gift, one that I had shopped for and spent a good amount of money on, but when the baby was born, I still brought over a loaf of pumpkin chocolate chip bread, wrapped in colored cellophane and tied with a ribbon.
The following year, as we celebrated her baby’s first birthday, it wasn’t the baby shower gift my neighbor remembered but the bread.
“Those early days were so hard with two other kids at home,” she told me. “I would find myself awake at 3am after nursing and so hungry, but too depleted to make myself anything. I remember standing at the counter, eating slice after slice of your bread. It was so comforting. That bread was the best gift ever.”
All the drummer boy had to offer the baby Jesus was his song. A simple song. Not the expensive gifts that others were laying before him. And the babe’s reaction? “…he smiled at me. Me and my drum.”
I think the smile on baby Jesus’s face is a reflection of God’s pure delight in us when we share our simplest but purest gifts with each other. Our time. Our talents. An ear. A hug. A helpful hand.
Don’t discredit the gifts that cost us nothing. These are often the best gifts ever.
Thanks for Reading!
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