Posted by TerryS (24.24.79.72) on December 12, 2001 at 16:43:18:
THE BOX
I received this from a good friend who had a choice to make. It said
that I had a choice to make, too. I've chosen. Now it's your turn to
choose.
The story goes that some time ago a man punished his 5-year-old daughter
for wasting a roll of expensive gold wrapping paper. Money was tight
and he became even more upset when the child pasted the gold paper so as
to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.
Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift box to her father the
next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy."
The father was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger
flared again when he found the box was empty. He spoke to her in a
harsh manner, "Don't you know, young lady, when you give someone a
present there's supposed to be something inside the package?"
The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh,
Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was full." The
father was crushed. He fell on his knees and put his arms around his
little girl, and he begged her to forgive him for his unnecessary anger.
An accident took the life of the child only a short time later and it is
told that the father kept that gold box by his bed for all the years of
his life. And whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult problems
he would open the box and take out an imaginary kiss and remember the
love of the child who had put it there.
In a very real sense, each of us as human beings have been given A
golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children,
family, friends and God. There is no more precious possession anyone
could hold.