Modern-Day Magi

At Christmas time, perhaps you recall the beautiful and classic O. Henry story, The Gift of the Magi.  The story is about a young couple – Jim and Della – who have very little money.  Each of them possesses a cherished treasure and a profound love for one and other.  As the story goes, Jim and Della each sacrifice their beloved treasure to buy a gift to enhance the other’s treasure.

The story of this young couple teaches us many timeless lessons about love, sacrifice, and caregivng.  Most of all, this story teaches us that the true meaning of Christmas is never about the gift; it is always about the act of giving – the care, love, and sacrifice behind the gift.  

The gifts that caregivers bestow on their ill and aging loved ones are the purest examples I have witnessed of the depth of human love and the height of sacrifice.  Caregivers give their most precious treasure – their energy, time, attention, and emotional investment – to enhance the most precious treasure – the mortal life – of another.  Caregivers sacrifice the “normalcy” of every-day life to focus on the well-being of another.  They suspend their own social and professional lives, their free time, and all too often their own health and well-being simply to aid, support, nurture, and attend to the needs of another.  The quality of this gift cannot be measured by commercial worth; it can only be measured by the exquisite and irreplaceable worth of human lives and human love.

What gift does the caregiver get in exchange?  For many, it is the precious gift of time:  a quality if not quantity of time spent with a loved one in great need.  For others, it is the enormous gift of new wisdom – wisdom gained through the experience of easing another’s suffering.  For all caregivers, the most abundant gift is a new way of reckoning the value of life; of recognizing that each day is extraordinarily precious.  Only by experiencing the struggle for well-being can any individual understand the enormous gifts of health, independence, and mortal life itself.   

             If you have not read The Gift of the Magi recently, I encourage you to read it today. It’s short enough for a family to read aloud and it is available here:  

 http://www.online-literature.com/o_henry/1014/

I close today with the story’s lovely concluding passage that captures what is in my heart:

"And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi." (O. Henry)

Merry Christmas to all caregivers, our modern-day Magi.