Jesus and the Lone Ranger

"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." (II Cor. 9:15)

When I was eight years old, there was only one present in the world that mattered to me. I wanted the Lone Ranger set--hat, mask, cap guns, and gunbelt complete with "silver" bullets. My dad had the original nine Lone Ranger books written by Fran Striker, who created the character for radio, and we had listened to many tapes of the old radio program. The Lone Ranger was my hero. (By the way, the definition of an intellectual is a person who hears the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger!)

That Christmas morning, we got up, ate breakfast (quickly), quoted the Christmas story from Luke 2 (as quickly as we could get away with) and then Mom (finally) began passing out presents. I tore open the usual collection of puzzles, books, games and socks without finding what I really wanted. I could see the pile of presents diminishing, and from scanning the size of those remaining, it became clear to me that I wasn't going to be getting the coveted gift. None of the other things I had received made a dent in my disappointment.

But after all the gifts were opened, my dad took me up into the attic and handed me one more---and my day was made! It was the one gift, the Lone Ranger set, that was everything I had wanted. I immediately put it on and went outside to play. There were no words to describe the way I felt.

That's sort of the position Paul was in (on a much different scale) when it came to describing the gift of God's Son--he called it unspeakable...indescribably wonderful, beyond our ability to put into words.

The Lone Ranger set is long gone. The elastic on the mask broke (and was re-stapled several times.) The hammer on one of the caps guns broke. The "silver" bullets fell out of the gunbelt. I never did find out what happened to the hat. "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Merry Christmas, and God bless us, every one!