[Credit =
to Dave Barry for the original humor. Greatly edited, I am sure, as it floa=
ted around the ‘net for a decade.]
&=
nbsp;
This is the time of year when we think b=
ack to the very first Christmas, when the Three Wise Men went to see baby J=
esus, and “presented unto Him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” =
; These are simple words, but if we analyze them carefully, we discover an =
important, yet often-overlooked, theological fact: There is no mention of w=
rapping paper.
If there had been wrapping paper, Matthew would=
have said so: “And lo, the gifts WERE inside 600 square cubits of paper.`=
` And the paper WAS festooned with pictures of Frosty the Snowman.“&=
nbsp; And Joseph WAS going to throweth it away, but Mary saideth unto him, =
she saideth, `Holdeth it! That is nice paper! Saveth it f=
or next year!’“ And Joseph DID rolleth his eyeballs.“ And the=
baby Jesus WAS more interested in the paper than, for example, the frankin=
cense.”
But these words do not appear in the Bible, which mea=
ns that the very first Christmas gifts were NOT wrapped. This is because th=
e people giving those gifts had two important characteristics:
=
1. They wer=
e wise.
2. They were men.
If we learned=
anything from this Christmas, men are not big gift wrappers. Men do not un=
derstand the point of putting paper on a gift just so somebody else can tea=
r it off. And no one ever had to wonder which presents men wrap at Ch=
ristmas. They are the ones that look like enormous spitballs.
My poi=
nt is that gift-wrapping is one of those skills — like having babies — th=
at come more naturally to women than to men.
In conclusion, remember that =
the important thing is not what you give, or how you wrap it. The imp=
ortant thing, needed for December 26th, is that you save the receipt!
~~
Dr Bob G=
riffin
bob@gri=
f.net www.grif.net
Continue steadfastly in p=
rayer