When my grandson Brad was ten years old, he wrote this essay for school:
"My winter break was the best I ever had. I went to Rome, GA to visit my grandparents. I had a lot of presents on Christmas, but I was most excited by a huge, heavy box. I opened it, but when I looked inside I was disappointed. There was a bunch of teapots, vases, dolls, and other stuff.
"I said, 'Is this some kind of joke?'"
"But then my Mom said, 'You're going out with your favorite uncles to shoot up all that stuff with guns.'
"Suddenly I was not disappointed.
"We went out into the woods with two pistols, a rifle, and a shotgun. The pistols were hard to control and kicked back on my hand, so I was a terrible shot, but a gun's a gun, right? I was better with the rifle and shot up more glass things than anybody else. I tried the shotgun, but it kicked my shoulder so hard that I set it on the ground and ran away.
"I shot everything to pieces, and it was amazing. I learned a good lesson. I thought my present was a disappointment at first, but it turned out to be the best I ever got."
We often fail to see the gift in great many things in our lives--until we look closer or think about it.
