JUST ABOUT this time last year we ran this article and we believe it can stand “one more time” at this time of the year. I have added a new paragraph at the end `and also am quoting a poem I read in the Jewish World Review. THANKS FOR READING – Bill Venrick

What I am about to disclose or reveal about myself is not exactly flattering but its truth I cannot deny. In fact it is almost as bad as the incident that occurred when, as a young boy, I thought it might be interesting to “grab a nice juicy apple” from the baskets in front of Kiger’s Grocery on Cherry Street and not bother to pay for it. The omnipresent Leroy Kiger just happened to be standing behind the screen door and he convinced me I ought to pay for it. Incidentally he could have simply added that apple to our regular tab but I would not have learned the lesson that stealing is a crime.

But back to an unappreciated Christmas gift.

I must have been around 14. Both of us boys had already been privileged to play with our LIONEL electric train set for a few years. My brother was four years my senior and I suppose he had about as much trouble as anyone does with the purchase of gifts, but this one Christmas he decided a PAPER punch-out train set would be just the thing for his younger brother. Boy was I unimpressed with that gift. I remember it well to this day. It was quite realistically portrayed or printed—it looked REAL but because we already had A GREAT ELECTRIC TRAIN, I simply could not get too excited about getting a train that I had to punch out of die-cut sheets of cardboard and affix Tab A with appropriate parts for Tab A. I honestly do not remember how I reacted upon opening this “wonderful Christmas gift” on Christmas day in1946.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST find out who Santa was? I suppose I was like many young kids and got all I could get out of this childhood fantasy but I specifically remember some precautionary measures my dad adopted in the last few days of December. Why would any father go to the bother of nailing the closet doors shut? I may not have been the “sharpest knife in the drawer” but I began to get suspicious about that time, how about you?

I hope no one who reads this will duplicate my very unappreciative reaction to ANY gift, whether it be the Christmas season or any gift-bearing holiday occasion. And how about the real reason for the Season – God’s gift to the world, His only begotten Son? Or, for my Jewish friends, mankind was given LIFE and the purpose and meaning for life; I am sure the Jewish faith is replete with prayers of thanksgiving for the gifts that make up our lives. One piece of wisdom I found in the Jewish World Review might serve as a sufficient subject about WORDS:

The more we know, the more we know what we don’t know.
The more we know the more we see to know.
The more we see the more we see we don’t know.

Sounds a bit like the book of Ecclesiastes EXPLAINED or condensed.

#####   AT THIS SEASON OF THE YEAR there is no doubt we can find sufficient reasons to appreciate gifts from God. THE WORDWRIGHT