Store Clerk: “What is Santa giving you for Christmas.”

5-year-old: “Santa’s not real; he’s just a nice story we tell at Christmas time. You may make-believe if you want to—it’s fun.”

This is a paraphrase of my granddaughter’s conversation, echoing her grandmother via her mother. “It’s a fun story to enjoy, but it’s not real. What do you want to do this Christmas?”

Graham Cooke’s recent blog asked, “What gifts are you asking for this Christmas?” He listed the Fruits of the Spirit and mentioned that Santa couldn’t give them to you.

So I sipped my coffee and went through the list of the Fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

Pausing at each gift, I asked myself:

• “Do I feel this presence of this gift in my life?”
• “Do I exhibit this fruit to others around me?”

If so, I added to the plus side of my list.
If not, I added it to the minus side—it was a gift I really needed.

Then I said thank you for the pluses and asked to be given the minuses.
Not to Santa, but to God.

And I join with Paul in his prayer found in 2 Thessalonians 1:11:
“With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to  your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Merry Christmas and have a fruit-filled New Year.