Christmas 1949 was likely an ordinary holiday, but for one particular couple, it was the beginning of a lifetime of tradition. This was their first Christmas as a married couple, one month before their first anniversary. A couple of eighteen-year-olds exchanged gifts. I don’t know what those first gifts were. His gift to her was wrapped in plain brown paper. She was so mad! How could he wrap it in plain paper? Was it just not worth the effort to find proper wrapping?

He got a kick out of her reaction, thus beginning a 70+ year tradition. He not only wrapped her gifts in brown paper, but he hid them, pulling them out as the last gift of the day. Her anger transformed into expectation. The contents of the humble packaging were often very valuable, usually jewelry or something special he knew she wanted but didn’t get for herself. In the later years, when the gathering family grew to 25–30 people, he discreetly added the brown box to her matriarchal pile of gifts. She still opened it last.

If you haven’t figured it out, this is another story about my grandparents. I learned so much from them. This brown paper packaging is no exception. It may even be one of the most important lessons. The best gifts are often hidden or disguised. After all, the Savior of the world entered the world in humble circumstances, born to a young woman and raised in a carpenter’s home. He lived without earthly wealth or status, even while teaching the crowds about the coming Kingdom. Isaiah 53 tells us He had no outward beauty to attract people, and He would be despised by many.

As the world remembers His birth, let us also remember the greatest gift of all: His sacrifice for our sins. Through Him, we can die to sin and be raised to walk in newness of life through baptism (Romans 6:3–4). Do you need to open His gift?