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Hey Dad,

I can't believe it. Only a couple more days until Christmas. I'm not sure who's more excited—the kids or me. They're excited to open presents … I'm excited to see the looks on their faces as they experience just how much we love them. Oh, I know you can't buy your kids' love … but each of the gifts that sit under the tree is a demonstration of how much someone means to us.

After all, we've planned, brainstormed, paid hard-earned cash, and lovingly wrapped each one in hopes that the receiver will know how much they mean to us.

I love seeing the growing pile of brightly wrapped packages under the tree. But for the last four years, a strange sadness and urgency creeps into my heart at the same time.

It first happened four Christmas eves ago. It was snowing out, making it perfect for a candlelight service. We dressed the kids in their Christmasy best, bundled up, and drove the eight slippery miles to church.

We turned the radio on hoping for some Christmas music, but instead a news reporter announced that the roads were bad and that there had been an accident, leaving three people dead. After a few more items of news, the music I had been hoping for began to play.

But I couldn't even hear it because I was still thinking about the accident and the three people who were killed.

Driving along, I imagined the families who had just begun their Christmas festivities when suddenly, a phone rang and they heard the news that someone they love had been killed. Coats were grabbed, radios left playing, Christmas trees still lit, as crying people scrambled to their cars.

That's when I thought about the unopened Christmas presents underneath the tree, lovingly bought and wrapped but never to be opened. Who knows whether they were returned, stored in a basement, or left wrapped and preserved as a reminder of those special people.

Since that Christmas Eve, I've though about those unopened packages often, and I think about icy roads, sudden illnesses, and freak accidents. I don't know what next year holds for my family … or even tomorrow, for that matter.

All I have is today. I must cherish it and the time we get to spend as a family.

So Dad, with that morbid Christmas thought, I wish you a very blessed Christmas with YOUR family. Lavish them with your time. Speak words that need to be heard, and take a good long look at the presents under your tree and think about those still unopened gifts around someone else's tree.

Merry Christmas.

You 'da dad!

© 2005 Todd Wilson. Used by permission.

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