Have you seen them? I know you have. The big cardboard boxes wrapped in Christmas paper taking up room in local businesses. Sometimes, because you’re curious, you stop and peek in. You find different things in the bottom. Sometimes it’s coats and packages of socks and maybe a couple of little kid shirts. The kind that come three to a package with the price stuck on with that extra sticky stuff that’s almost impossible to get off. Sometimes it’s toys. The little telephone on a string seems to be popular. Nerf footballs. Weird monster looking creatures that little boys love. Whatever it is it’s on its’ way to a kid somewhere. A kid who will wake up Christmas morning to a surprise. A present. A part to play in the excitement of the morning. God bless the folks who take the time to wrap those boxes. To put them out. To direct people to them when they wander in. The ones who gather up whatever is in the bottom of the box every evening and add it to a pile in the back. Waiting until the very last moment to drop it off somewhere or call to have it picked up. Hoping that the pile grows and that their red wrapped box makes a huge difference. And God bless the people who come to get the piles. Who take them back to a church or a conference room somewhere and separate them and log them and wrap them. They put shiny tags on them and group them for families or schools or neighborhoods. They load them up again and take them where they are welcomed by another crew that have arranged a little get together. There will be paper tablecloths with gold bells and greenery on them. There will be red paper plates and hot chocolate and cookies decorated like snowflakes. The lights will be too bright and everyone will feel a little awkward but there will be a warmth in the air. A gentleness and lots of quick smiles and parents with their hands on their kid’s shoulders or the back of their necks. Moms will be holding several jackets and Dads will be holding the littlest of their families. Candy canes will appear and some of those cheaply made Santa hats. Kids will get a little braver and some will start making furtive trips by the tree to see if there is a present there for them. They will run back to their parents grinning and hide again behind their legs. Soon Bob from accounting or Charles that teaches adult Sunday School will show up dressed as Santa. He will settle himself into an office chair or a couch pulled in from another room and the kids will assemble into a line before anyone even knows it’s happening. That one lady who always volunteers for these things will appear with a clipboard and starting checking off names from a list. Each child will leave with a gift wrapped and tagged with their name. They will take it back to the parents with a hopeful grin. “Can I open it now?” their eyes will ask. Sometimes the answer is, “Yes.” Sometimes the answer is, “Save it for Christmas.” Gradually the parents will leave with their tired kids and their arms full of gifts. Volunteers will begin to stack chairs and throw away empty cups and pick up discarded Santa hats. Eventually somebody will unplug the Christmas tree and shut off the overhead lights. It’s all as simple and as beautiful as that. It happens every Christmas and it always starts with someone wrapping a giant box in pretty paper. With someone being willing to be part of the chain of good deeds that will lead to four year old Christoper in his footy pajamas having a toy on the most important kid day of the whole year.