As money was tight, he became even more upset
when on Christmas Eve he saw that the child had used all of the expensive gold
paper to decorate one shoebox she had put under the Christmas tree. He also was
concerned about where she had gotten money to buy what was in the shoebox.
Nevertheless, the next morning the little girl,
filled with excitement, brought the gift box to her father and said, "This
is for you, Daddy!"
As he opened the box, the father was embarrassed
by his earlier overreaction, now regretting how he had punished her.
But when he opened the shoebox, he found it was
empty and again his anger flared. "Don't you know, young lady," he
said harshly, "when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be
something inside the package!"
The little girl looked up at him with sad tears
rolling from her eyes and whispered: "Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses
into it until it was all full."
The father was crushed. He fell on his knees and
put his arms around his precious little girl. He begged her to forgive him for
his unnecessary anger.
An accident took the life of the child only a
short time later. It is told that the father kept this little gold box by his
bed for all the years of his life. Whenever he was discouraged or faced
difficult problems, he would open the box, take out an imaginary kiss, and
remember the love of this beautiful child who had put it there.
In a very real sense, each of us has been given an
invisible golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our
children, family, friends and God. There is no more precious possession anyone
could hold.
