Give On...

Tears welled up in my eyes.  I looked at Pops who looked away as if he was redirecting the all the credit to Chris and Amy.  Chris Bonnet is this cat in his early thirties with a beautiful wife and two gorgeous girls who just so happened to have some strange desire to give me the best birthday present I have ever received.  I knew something was up when Momma called me and said "You can't come home tonight."  What I considered inconvenience at the time now I look back on and name it a blessing instead.  I made my disapproval known, and I could not have been more of my own worst enemy.
Chris, Amy, Jared, Sarah, Stan, Andrew, Melissa, Mom, and Pops had been making my shabby room over.  I ignored the request of me not to come home with the intentions of acquiring my music equipment after work so I could head out to a band rehearsal.  Upon the cancelation of practice I was sort of stuck at the house, but forced out of my room.  Keeping secrets is not my families strongest attribute.  In fact, on the contrair, and I really like it that way.  In this instance I could see how it would be frustrating.  I saw a box in the garage that contained a flat panel TV stand.  My little sister TK accidently let it slip that I was getting a mini-fridge, and Chris had already told me that he had a surround sound system he was going to give me that would kill a full grown buffalo from 3 miles away.
This is what family is.  Not the receiving part, but the giving part.  The best gift that was given that night was the joy given to the three young girls who saw their parents giving selflessly.  They saw their parents investing in someone without expecting anything in return.  Those girls will never forget that.  I even believe they will have this same desire to do the same.  This desire that I have to not let the giving of my parents stop with me.  If this giving ends with me then I have become more than selfish.  I have decided to quench the very spirit that these people wanted to share with me.  By him considering himself less than others and laying his life down, giving joy is something that Jesus did, does, and will continue to do.  If I am a Christ follower I must mimic his example by giving on.