The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Check out this story from the "You Make Me Laugh" newsletter at Crosswalk.com


*The Gift That Keeps On Giving*

Roy Collette and his brother-in-law have been exchanging the same pair of pants as a Christmas present for 11 years-- and each time the package gets harder to open. This year the pants came wrapped in a car mashed into a 3-foot cube. The trousers are in the glove compartment of a 1974 Gremlin. Now Collette's plotting his revenge -- if he can get them out.

It all started when Collette received a pair of moleskin trousers from his brother-in-law, Larry Kunkel of Bensenville, Illinois. Kunkel's mother had given her son the britches when he was a college student. He wore them a few times, but they froze stiff in cold weather and he didn't like them. So he gave them to Collette.

Collette, who called the moleskins "miserable," wore them three times, then wrapped them up and gave them back to Kunkel for Christmas the next year.

The friendly exchange continued routinely until Collette twisted the pants tightly, stuffed them into a 3-foot-long, 1-inch wide tube and gave them back to Kunkel. The next Christmas, Kunkel compressed the pants into a 7-inch square, wrapped them with wire and gave the "bale" to Collette. Not to be outdone, the next year Collette put the pants into a 2-foot-square crate filled with stones, nailed it shut, banded it with steel and gave the trusty trousers back to Kunkel.

The brothers agreed to end the caper if the trousers were damaged. But they were as careful as they were clever.

Kunkel had the pants mounted inside an insulated window that had a 20-year guarantee and shipped them off to Collette. Collette broke the glass, recovered the trousers, stuffed them into a 5-inch coffee can and soldered it shut. The can was put in a 5-gallon container filled with concrete and reinforcing rods and given to Kunkel the following Christmas. Two years ago, Kunkel installed the pants in a 225 pound homemade steel ashtray made from 8-inch steel casings and etched Collette's name on the side. Collette had some trouble retrieving the treasured trousers, but succeeded without burning them with a cutting torch.

Last Christmas, Collette found a 600-pound safe and hauled it to Viracon Inc. in Owatonna, where the shipping department decorated it with red and green stripes, put the pants inside and welded the safe shut. The safe was then shipped to Kunkel, who is the plant manager for Viracon's outlet in Bensenville.

Last week, the pants were trucked to Owatonna, 55 miles south of Minneapolis, in a drab green, 3-foot cube that once was a car with 95,000 miles on it. A note attached to the 2,000-pound scrunched car advised Collette that the pants were inside the glove compartment. "This will take some planning," Collette said.

"I will definitely get them out. I'm confident." But he's waiting until January to think about how to recover the bothersome britches.

"Wait until next year," he warned. "I'm on the offensive again."


Now aren't you thankful for only having to open your gifts wrapped in some colored paper, tape, and maybe a ribbon!

"Presents" Or "Presence"

In this holiday season we know as Christmas, we spend the majority of time focusing on the giving and receiving of gifts. In fact, most of the stress that people experience during this time centers around the busyness of choosing, purchasing, and wrapping presents. There is nothing wrong with giving gifts to the ones that we love. God Himself is the example of such giving, for He loved us so much He was willing to give His Son, and to everyone who is willing to believe He also gives them eternal life. But do we put more emphasis on "presents" or on "presence?"

The wisemen who saw the star spent a great deal of time, preparation, and money in putting together their entourage that would travel to Israel so that they could find the newborn King. With God's divine direction they came to enter into the house where the child was, and upon entering they bowed down in worship and presented to Jesus expensive gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They were not satisfied just to send reprentatives on their behalf, and they certainly weren't going to ship them by some impersonal package company. For them there was nothing more important than being able to be in the "presence" of this newborn King when they presented Him with their "presents."

The Bible records these words about the birth of the Christ of Christmas.

"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel', which translated means, 'God with us.'"

These words emphasize God's desire to be a relational God with His people. He not only wants us to know Him as the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God, but also as the God who wants to take up residence in the very lives of the ones He's created. Immanuel, God with us, speaks of the first coming of Jesus Christ as He put aside a portion of His glory and took on mortal flesh. He did this just so you & I could know Him. Now we can live every day in His presence because of His promise to come into our lives and never leave us or forsake us.

So in this Christmas season, do not only consider the P-R-E-S-E-N-T-S of Christmas, but take time to receive and reflect on the P-R-E-S-E-N-C-E of Christmas.