The Gold Wrapping Paper - An Inspirational Short Christmas Story

Once upon a time, there was a man who
worked very hard just to keep food on the
table for his family. This particular year a
few days before Christmas, he punished
his little five-year-old daughter after
learning that she had used up the family's
only roll of expensive gold wrapping paper.
As money was tight, he became even more
upset when on Christmas Eve he saw that
the child had used all of the expensive
gold paper to decorate one shoebox she
had put under the Christmas tree. He also
was concerned about where she had
gotten money to buy what was in the
shoebox.
Nevertheless, the next morning the little
girl, filled with excitement, brought the
gift box to her father and said, "This is for
you, Daddy!"
As he opened the box, the father was
embarrassed by his earlier overreaction,
now regretting how he had punished her.
But when he opened the shoebox, he
found it was empty and again his anger
flared. "Don't you know, young lady," he
said harshly, "when you give someone a
present, there's supposed to be something
inside the package!"
The little girl looked up at him with sad
tears rolling from her eyes and whispered:
"Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into
it until it was all full."
The father was crushed. He fell on his
knees and put his arms around his
precious little girl. He begged her to
forgive him for his unnecessary anger.
An accident took the life of the child only
a short time later. It is told that the
father kept this little gold box by his bed
for all the years of his life. Whenever he
was discouraged or faced difficult
problems, he would open the box, take out
an imaginary kiss, and remember the love
of this beautiful child who had put it
there.
In a very real sense, each of us has been
given an invisible golden box filled with
unconditional love and kisses from our
children, family, friends and God.
There is no more precious possession
anyone could hold.