by Sandy and Pete Singer

As we hand out the Fellowship of Christian Farmers walking sticks, I’m often reminded of a long-ago Christmas and the exhilaration of paging through the Sears Wish Book with its multiple pages of toys — dolls, dollhouses, dish sets, games, sleds, Tonka trucks and Roy Rodgers pistols.

My dreams were endless as I paged through that book, circling all the toys I dreamed of opening at Christmas. My No. 1 gift wish was a pink makeup case filled with all the fake makeup a girl could ever need. I placed stars all around the makeup case and turned the corner of the page over to mark it. How I dreamed of opening that gift on Christmas!

When the day finally arrived, Grandma handed me a simply wrapped box. “Open this before everyone gets here,” she said. “It’s a little extra gift just for you.”

I thanked Grandma and opened the gift. To my delight, it was the makeup case I so desperately wanted, and it was the very best Christmas gift I received that year.

What can a child’s Christmas gift possibly have to do with walking sticks and receiving Jesus Christ as lord and savior? We must sincerely believe the gift is real and that it is ours to receive. The gift becomes ours only when we reach out and take it.

Gifts are absolutely free and undeserved.

Most gifts are bought for a price. My little case had a huge cost, especially in light of my grandma’s income. The Fellowship of Christian Farmers spends thousands of dollars and countless hours of exhausting labor each year. But the greatest sacrifice of all is the price Jesus paid when he suffered and died on the cross to pay for our sin.

John 6:23 reads, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Sins washed away, eternal life in a perfect heaven, doesn’t come to us in a box with a bow. By faith, we simply and sincerely tell God we’re sorry for our sin and place our trust in the price Jesus paid on the cross to get us into heaven.

My little pink makeup case has long been tossed aside. Walking sticks get lost. But the gift of eternal life lasts forever.

It’s the very best Christmas gift ever.

The Singers are fieldmen with the Fellowship of Christian Farmers. They reside in Punta Gorda, Fla.