A stingy man went Christmas shopping, but everything he saw was too expensive except for a £50 vase that was on sale for £2, because the handle had been broken off. He bought it and had the sales assistant post it so that his friend would think that he had paid for it, and that it had been broken in the mail.

A week after Christmas he received a thank-you note from his friend.

‘Thank you for the lovely vase,’ his letter said. ‘It was so nice of you to wrap each piece separately.’

Ouch!

Here’s something challenging from Charles Swindoll:

Some gifts you can give this Christmas are beyond monetary value; mend a quarrel; dismiss suspicion; tell someone, ‘I love you’. Give something away – anonymously. Forgive someone who has treated you wrong. Turn away wrath with a soft answer. Visit someone in a nursing home. Apologise if you were wrong. Be especially kind to someone with whom you work. Give as God gave to you in Christ, without obligation, or announcement, or reservation, or hypocrisy.

Blessings

Stuart