Morning Meditation – The Sacred Gift
Morning Meditation with George Hutchings
The Sacred Gift
When I was six years old I attended midnight mass at St. John’s Catholic Church in my hometown. It was not my first time in church. In fact, I went to church and catechism every morning before school. But there was something different about that midnight mass. It was not church as usual for me. The choir sang from the balcony and with the church’s terrific acoustics it was as if the heavenly angels had come down and touched my soul. It was the first time I felt the Holiness of God touch me. That was a special, once-in-a-lifetime experience.
However, when church was over it was time for Santa Claus and the Christmas tree. The secular overrode the sacred. It was Santa’s time. But, etched on my memory and in my immortal soul is that night’s touch of the sacred.
Many years later I read the Christmas story of the Magi bringing gifts to Jesus. The three kings of the east brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold was the gift for a king, frankincense the gift for a priest, and myrrh for the anointing of a body to be crucified. The story was a continuation of my sacred experience many years before as I considered that I had never given a sacred gift. I just shopped the Christmas store windows in Cape Girardeau and thought of gifts for myself and others. Those gifts were only toys that would break 30 minutes after being opened and forgotten within a day. The gifts from the Magi were different. They were the best the men had to offer to a sacred one in a manger.
You don’t give tinsel to a king; you give your best. Gold, the most precious gift fit for a King, was for the King of Kings—Jesus. Frankincense was used by priests to lift prayers to God. Not an empty smoke, the incense carried the prayers of the sacred souls of men to God. Myrrh was the precious ointment for Jesus’ sacred body after crucifixion. All the gifts were the best and most appropriate for the person receiving them.
Now each year, Christmas is not Christmas unless I feel the touch of the sacred.
There are 87 sacred souls in Kenya at Juanita School for Girls. We will read the Christmas story to them. Special gifts will be given to each of the fragile souls. I don’t know if the gift is for me or for them, but I only know that giving a gift to Christ through these young girls brings back to me the touch of the sacred.
Make a Christmas gift to Christ Himself and feel the touch of the Holy One through the Juanita School for Girls. Donate today at www.JuanitaSchoolKenya.org. Or, text your donation to 801801, use Venmo @HeronFund (JuanitaSchoolKenya), or mail a check to Juanita School at PO Box 425, Cottleville, MO 63338.
George Hutchings, Co-Founder and President
Juanita School for Girls, Jungle Kenya
Follow us at: www.JuanitaSchoolKenya.org
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