Short story: The Gift

Hello to anyone out there who might read this. This story is one that I feel God gave me the idea for when I was first married, it only took me six years to write it. Well, I guess I've always been a bit of a procrastinator. This story is also the reason that I decided to create this blog. I will post some of my other stories and poems in the days to come. It is a bit longer and will take a little time commitment to read it. Here is a brief description to peak you interest. It is a allegory about the Christian life and how our salvation is a precious gift. Enjoy.

I was a worldly man, a sinful man. My life had no purpose. I worked at a dead end job, reporting and keeping statistics, meaningless numbers following meaningless lives in a meaningless existence. I lived for the weekends. I would party and get drunk, a flood of numbness to take away the raging numbness of my pitiful existence. One lack of feeling to cover over another. Sometimes I would get in fights, exchange blows with another person, another statistic. Even the punches I received felt like nothing to me. Usually the next morning I would feel… something: pain in my head from drinking, pain in my face from getting punched, pain in my heart for the endless cycles in which I was trapped. Dancing in swirling circles, never progressing, seen by none. I felt empty.
There was a person at my work who didn’t seem like the normal statistic. He was always happy, cheerful. He was always talking to me, he didn’t seem to catch the hints that I would drop trying to let him know that I didn’t want to talk, I just wanted to finish another worthless day. One day I finally asked him why he was always happy and joyful. He told me that he had received a great and valuable gift. I asked him if he had a rich uncle who had died. He smiled and said that someone did have to die for him to inherit the Gift, but that the person didn’t stay dead. I knew he was crazy. But then he said that the same Gift he had I could have too. He said it was free and that I just had to go to the source to get it. I had to go to the House of Gifts and seek the Gift Giver and then I could have what he had. I wanted what he had, but I didn’t want to go anywhere. I had a busy schedule of insignificance and I was comfortable with it, even though, if I really thought about it, I knew I was miserable.
One day my co-worker didn’t stop by as usual. I was expecting him to come to my cubicle and annoy me with his cheerful chatter, but he didn’t come. In an unexpected move I actually went to his cubicle. He wasn’t there that day, or the next… I started to realize that I missed him, even though he was annoyingly happy.
After a month he finally came back to work. No one else seemed to notice that he had been gone, they were all numb too. He limped to his cubicle on crutches. I hadn’t thought to get him a welcome back present, so I got him something from the vending machine. He smiled when I handed it to him. I asked him where he had been.
He told me that he had been in a terrible car crash. A drunk driver had run a red light and smashed into his car. His wife and baby daughter had been killed. I didn’t even know he was married. With tears in his eyes he told me of the pain he had gone through, of having his family torn away from him. But then he smiled through the tears and told me that he knew his family was with the Gift Giver. He said his life would have no meaning left if it wasn’t for the Gift that he had, that he always carried with him. Then he gritted his teeth and told me that he was determined to even forgive the drunk driver. He had made the choice to forgive and he said that the Gift Giver would help to heal the hurt. He said that you can’t hold the Gift if you make your hand into a fist, and holding on to the Gift was more important to him that holding on to his anger against the drunk. I shivered inside. I had driven drunk a couple of times.
I left him to his sorrow feeling sheepish for giving him something from the vending machine. My Gift was meant to welcome him back, to give him comfort. But the Gift he carried was what sustained him. I remembered our past conversations and realized that he had been trying to give me a Gift for a long time. I watched him improve over the next few months, his joy returning, new life rising from the ashes and twisted metal and broken glass. Finally I decided.
“Tell me how to get this Gift,” I asked.

He told me of the Gift Giver and the House of Gifts. He invited me to go with him on the last day of the week. Usually I drank on this day because it was my last day before another useless work week, but I had seen something in him that made me curious, so I went with him.
We went to a building with a large room. Many other people came too, they all smiled at me and seemed to shine with an inner radiance. They sang songs to the Gift Giver, thanking him for their Gifts. I didn’t know the words, but I tried to hum along a little. I asked my friend how he knew that this Gift Giver existed, he said he had seen him, in his heart and mind. I asked him how he saw, and he told me that I would see too when I was ready and when I wanted to. He said I would see the Gift Giver when I wanted him more than anything else in my life. I was comfortable with my meaningless life, but I was interested in this other life, this new life. I closed my eyes and asked the Gift Giver to reveal himself to me.
I waited. I waited some more. I began to get frustrated. I heard my friend tell me to just relax and keep seeking, keep waiting for the Gift Giver. He said it was worth the wait. I grew calm, and from somewhere came an expectancy. I felt like I was in a doctor’s office waiting to see a doctor who could heal what was wrong with me, the wound from which I suffered but which I could not see, could not define. The wound that made me drink, made the world crazy, made it rage against itself and fall to its knees and hurl curses at the sky, which I guess is where the Gift Giver would live. In the sky, or beyond, but not on this sickened earth.
“But I did live here,” I heard a voice say. “I was above and beyond the earth, but at the same time I was on it, dealing with the same things that you deal with. I came to heal the wounds of those who would come to me; I came to bring life that overcomes the numbness. I came to give purpose to those caught in the downward spirals of meaninglessness existence.”
I imagined myself in the doctor’s office again, my expectancy was overwhelming. I knew that it was my name that would be called next. I heard a voice next to me, saying that I could go in now. I knew it was the same voice that I had just heard speaking to me. I looked over, and sitting in the chair next to me was a shining man. He was holding a boring doctors office magazine, but not really reading it. I could tell he was looking at me, but I struggled to look at him. He was so brilliant. Then the door to the doctor’s room opened and I saw the same shining man, only maybe a little older, a little bigger. Then the man who was next to me took my hand and led me closer. He walked up to the older shining man and they embraced. As I watched, the brilliant light grew and they became one. Then he asked if I was ready to receive the Gift. My mouth stammered, but my heart seemed to say “yes!” I think he listened to my heart instead of my mumbling mouth. He lifted his hand toward me, then turned his palm down. A shining drop of blood fell from his hand. I had the feeling that it caused him great pain to bleed, but great joy to give it. As the drop of blood fell towards me it became a shining diamond as big as an apple. I caught it in my hand and marveled at its beauty, it seemed to shine with a light deep within that was the same light that came from the Gift Giver. Suddenly I smelled a bad smell and felt embarrassed as I realized it was coming from me. I was about to apologize to the Gift Giver, who was smiling. But before I could open my mouth I noticed that there was a darkness rising from my chest, over my heart. This was the source of the bad smell. It smelled like death and decay. As I watched, this dark cloud was absorbed by the diamond that I held in my hand. I felt clean, lighter, better, whole.
“Keep it well” the Gift Giver told me. I felt like I should do something or give something in return. Before I could say anything he told me that it was free, but that it came with a responsibility. I needed to keep using it on myself to clean away the darkness and decay, and I should tell other people about it too, so they could receive this free Gift. I was glad to have the Gift, but I didn’t know how I would explain it to other people. I went home feeling new, changed. I slept better than I had in as long as I could remember.
The next day I woke with a start as I realized that I had overslept. My peaceful slumber had gone from bliss to panic as I remembered that I had a presentation today. I dressed quickly, scarfed something that resembled breakfast, and jumped in my car. There was an accident on the freeway so the traffic was backed up and of course people had to slow down to look at it as they passed. I hate that. I mumbled curses under my breath as I waited to get by. Finally I got up to the wreck, I wasn’t there to gawk at the spectacle, I was late, but now I could floor it and get past all the rubberneckers. I made it to work just a little late, I ran to my meeting and launched directly into my presentation. I think my co-workers, and more importantly, my bosses could tell that I was rushed and ill prepared. In the midst of my presentation I had the nagging feeling that I was forgetting something. My day was so chaotic that it wasn’t until I returned home that I realized what I was forgetting, my Gift. I scrambled around my house, throwing laundry and papers everywhere trying to remember where I had put it. It’s not common for someone to misplace a giant diamond. Then I remembered not only my Gift, but the Gift Giver himself. I closed my eyes and asked him to please, please reveal himself to me again. I wasn’t at the House of Gifts, the meeting hall where the others met, but I was hoping he would reveal himself to me anyways. Suddenly I felt his presence within my heart. I looked down and there was my Gift, resting on my chest, I was on the floor although I don’t remember lying down. I lifted the giant diamond from off my chest and heard the Gift Giver tell me that I didn’t need to worry about losing it, that the Gift was always within my heart, I just needed to take it out often and look at it. As I gazed into the depths of the diamond I saw my day being replayed. I realized that I had been super stressed, but that I hadn’t asked for peace nor sought a solitary moment where I could look at my Gift. I realized that I had been angry and cursing while I was driving to work and that I had cut people off after I had gotten past the accident. Then I saw the accident that I had ignored that morning. A single mother was unhurt, but wondering how she would afford another car. She had been distracted and the accident was her fault. Her tear streaked face showed that whatever hope she had of getting ahead had just suffered a huge set-back. My heart went out to her. I wanted her situation to be better. I didn’t know I could care about someone else’s situation and problems, but I was discovering all sorts of new things about myself. Lastly, as I gazed into my Gift I saw all my darkness from the day gathered up over my chest, like the foul smelling cloud from the day before. I watched as it too was absorbed by the diamond. Once again I felt clean. That night I asked the Gift Giver to help me remember my lesson, that my Gift was always with me and that I needed to look at it and value it and let it make me clean.
Time passed. I began to fall back into the routines and ruts of life. I wanted to take out the diamond every morning and spend time thanking the Gift Giver for it, but I had received a promotion at work and now I was busier than ever. Soon I was working so much I didn’t even remember my Gift at all. I started talking to my coworkers, they seemed to notice me more now that I had been promoted. One day they asked me to go to happy hour at the bar after work to celebrate the completion of a big project. I hardly thought about it, I just said yes, it was like a knee jerk reaction. Just then I seemed to smell something. It was vaguely familiar, like from something in my past, but I couldn’t place it. It reminded me of the smell of my dad. He smoked and drank a lot, and lots of people didn’t like the smell of cigarettes and stale beer, but to me it was familiar. Although if I thought about it, I realized that it was a bad smell, but it was what I knew. I only have a few good memories of my dad, he died young. Lung cancer and liver failure hit him at the same time, like a train.
I went to happy hour that night with my coworkers. I went with them the next night too. I went that weekend as well, but that time I was alone. More time passed. I was living like the old me, smelling a stench and calling it perfume. One night I was stumbling home from the bar and someone talked to me. I squinted and tried to remember where I knew them from. Then it hit me, they were one of the people who attended the house of the Gift Giver. They asked me how I was, and if I was still using my Gift. They showed concern for me, but I sensed no judgment in their eyes. They even pretended like they couldn’t tell I was drunk. When I just mumbled something about how busy I had been they smiled and changed the subject. A light and excitement grew in their eyes as they told me about all the things that the Gift Giver was teaching them. They were the most excited about the fact that they had been able to lead two people to accept the Gift as well, and now those people were transformed and happier than ever. I forgot my sense of shame as I listened intently, something within me stirred and I found myself also being excited for the two people who had just received their Gift. Suddenly I felt sobered up as I realized that a part of me still valued my Gift, and that same part of me grieved over the recent year I had wasted not living according to the great wealth that had been invested in me. I was scurrying to try and keep up with the demands of making earthly wealth, but I was already rich with the Gift that I’d received. After telling me this good news they asked me if I wanted to go to a meeting at the house of the Gift Giver the following night. I was embarrassed of my current state, but I told them that I would try to make it. I didn’t sleep well that night, I was in turmoil over what to do. I felt so dirty, I felt like the other people in the meeting would smell my stench, but in the end I decided that it was worth the embarrassment just to get clean.
I went to the meeting the following night. I felt again a sense of expectancy and excitement, like I had felt when I first met the Gift Giver. We sang and someone talked about the great value of the Gift and how it was meant to transform us, and through us transform the world. After that the speaker asked if anyone wanted to come forward to talk to the Gift Giver and recommit their lives to him. I felt my heart leap with joy and pound with fear. It felt like I fought every step, but eventually I found my self up at the front. My head was hung low, my eyes blurry. I felt like my Gift could never absorb all the darkness from my past year of living in my own ways. But then I felt his voice in my heart, and he showed me what he had done, the price he had paid, in order to make the Gift available to everyone, now and forever. I realized that my petty actions could never devalue the Gift and the price that had been paid to purchase it. I felt light and clean again as I realized that I was forgiven and I didn’t have to worry about my wretched past, because I was with him now, and he would be with me in my future as long as I held to him. For the second time in my life I was changed, but this time I altered my lifestyle in order to stay on the right path. I began taking out my Gift every morning to admire it and value it, but I also continued to go to the house of the Gift Giver to meet with others and share in a larger family I didn’t know I could have. I always recognized the stench after that, though it was a familiar smell, It belonged to a past that I would never go back to.
Things changed, fast. I asked to be demoted back to my old position at my job. Although it was less money, it gave me more time for what was important. Besides I now realized that I was rich. My life had new meaning and joy. As I continued to look at the Gift every morning I began to learn new things. It was a beautiful diamond, with many facets. Within the facets I could see different characteristics of the Gift Giver. He was a Father, but he was a Brother. He was to be feared and respected, but he was to be intimately loved. I was his son, his soldier, his servant, and his slave. He was greatly exalted, the highest, but he became the lowest in order to come to me. The facets were unending and although they sometimes seemed to be on the opposite ends of the spectrum, they were just on opposite sides of the same beautiful diamond. One morning as I was trying to focus on my Gift and learn from it I was distracted by a difficult decision I had coming up. Something in the diamond caught my eye. As I looked I could see an image of me, I was holding my Gift in my hand. The difficult decision was before me, represented by a road the forked and went in two different directions. As I looked, the diamond in my hand became a compass and began pointing down one of the paths. I was confused at first, but then relieved as I realized that the Gift Giver was guiding me and helping me to make the decision. I always used it as my compass after that.
On another occasion, as I was gazing into the depths of the Gift, I beheld someone from work. She was quiet, she worked in one of the cubicles a couple spaces down from me. I had never noticed her much before, but now I was being shown a clip from her life. She had just finished a big project, but instead of feeling happy she just hung her head, a few tears falling. I think she must have felt empty, like I used to feel. I figured she must live alone, there were lots of pictures of cats on her cubicle walls.
That day I said hi to her in the halls. On Friday I asked her the typical Friday question: did she have plans for the weekend? She said no. I didn’t have the courage to ask her to the house of the Gift Giver, I didn’t know her well enough yet, so I wished her a happy weekend. The next week she actually initiated a conversation with me. Eventually the subject came up of what were my interests and how I spent my time. The Gift Giver was such a big part of my life now I couldn’t really talk about my life outside of work without mentioning him, so I told her about my Gift. I told her she could have this Gift too, she kind of laughed cynically, and said that everything comes with a price. But, with a sigh, she asked to see my Gift. I had never tried to show it to anyone else before. I kept it in my heart, and looked at it in the mornings, in the solitude of my apartment. I asked the Gift Giver to reveal himself to her as he had revealed himself to me. I closed my eyes and held my hands over my heart, I waited patiently, and then I felt a weight in my hands and looked down to see the diamond. I smiled at her.
“See.” I said.
“Hey, how did you do that?” she said. “How did you get that rock to appear in your hands? You must be good at magic tricks, tell me how you did it.”
I was surprised, I looked down and could clearly see the diamond in my cupped hands, but she had called it just a rock. When I looked up there was a person I had never seen in the office before strolling up to our conversation, uninvited. I was learning to love people more as the Gift Giver worked in my heart, but I instantly disliked this person. He had greasy, slicked back hair, and a pointy black goatee. His plaid suit was out of place in a professional office building, he looked like a sleazy car salesman.
“What’s with the ugly rock?” he kind of sneered. My co-worker didn’t really look at this strange new co-worker, but she indicated that it was some Gift that I had been trying to tell her about.
“Well, it’s kind of an ugly rock, but I’ll buy it from you if you want. I collect rocks, I’ll give you fifty bucks for it.”
“What department do you work in?” I said, “I’ve never seen you here before. Besides, we were having a private conversation when you walked up.”
He ignored my question, instead he looked over at my coworker. “So why are you interested in this guy’s rock anyways? Don’t you have any better hobbies?”
“It’s not a rock, it’s a precious diamond!” I said, perhaps a little loudly for an office environment.
“Looks like a rock to me,” they both said in unison.
I looked down, in my hand was a black chunk of basalt or some kind of ugly rock, I’m not sure. My mind was reeling. I was sure I had been holding my Gift only a moment before. I closed my eyes and asked for guidance, I really needed it to be a compass right now, to give me some sort of indicator of what to do. In my mind I could still see the diamond shining. I felt the Gift Giver speak to my heart, “He’s lying”, he said.
Suddenly I realized who this greasy newcomer was. He had come into our conversation at just the wrong time and he had tried to buy my priceless Gift for fifty bucks. He was the enemy of the Gift Giver, he was the Gift Stealer. He sought to take every good thing that the Gift Giver gave, he was opposite in purpose, but not equal in power. And now he was trying to steal my coworker’s Gift before I could give it to her. I felt an anger I had never felt before. Not like the anger people have against each other when they are trying to prove that they are right. It was a righteous anger that came from being right and standing on a place of truth, standing against lies.
“I told you, it’s a diamond. You can not steal it or buy it or devalue it. It was given in love, and your hate cannot take it. You are not welcome here, so leave. Now!”
As I said this the Gift transformed, it elongated and became a shining diamond sword. It was fearsome to behold, I would’ve been quite afraid of it if it wasn’t in my own hands. I saw the enemy’s eyes grow wide in fear, and then he sneered at me. He reached out towards my coworker, I saw that he had long fingers, with long dirty fingernails. He touched her on the neck, she cried out in pain, then he disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke that smelled like the stench I used to live in.
“Are you okay?” I asked concerned.
“No, I’m not okay. I’ve been standing here too long talking to you about your obsession with stupid rocks and now I’ve got a kink in my neck.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t a new coworker who did it, it was the enemy. But he’s gone now.”
“What are you talking about?” She said, anger and confusion in her voice. “I’ve just been standing here talking to you. And now my neck hurts and I’ve got to get back to work, so stop wasting my time.” She stormed off.
All the rest of that week she wouldn’t talk to me. She said that she was stressed and had lots of work to do and wasn’t feeling well. I was angry with myself, that I couldn’t describe the Gift right to her, I couldn’t make her see it for the beautiful diamond that it was. I was also angry at the enemy. I began remembering her every morning when I was spending time with my Gift. I asked the Gift Giver to reveal himself to her. I kept trying to talk to her at work. Eventually she began talking to me again. After many months of my persistence she eventually decided to go to the house of the Gift Giver with me. I think she might have agreed just to get me to stop bugging her, but I made her promise to come with an open mind. I was nervous that nothing would happen, that she wouldn’t see the Gift Giver. I didn’t want things to turn out like before.
She sat kind of solemnly throughout the service. I knew all the songs by now, so I sang and tried to just love the Gift Giver, hoping that she would see something genuine. She listened to the message, her face blank. I wasn’t sure if anything was happening in her heart. At the end, I was grabbing my coat and getting ready to leave, but when I turned back she was gone. I found her a moment later, she had gone up to the front of the room to talk with the speaker who had led the service. I sat and waited. They talked for a while, then she closed her eyes and let the speaker pray for her. I saw surprise wash over her face, she started shaking her head from side to side, I thought maybe she was saying no to something. But then she started rolling her head in every direction, and there was a huge smile on her face. I realized she was exercising her neck. It seemed to be back to normal. In the car ride on the way home she was talking non-stop about how she had received her Gift and the Gift Giver had spoken to her and told her that he was going to restore what the enemy had taken. She told me how she had felt a heat in her neck, like a fire, but a cleansing fire that was also like a warm embrace. When we got to her house we stayed in the car and talked long into the night. I was so happy that she had received the Gift because I had been asking the Gift Giver to reveal himself to her for a long time. Also I didn’t have many coworkers who understood my changed life, but now she did. As we talked I realized that there was a new radiance to her, a beauty that I had never noticed before. She seemed to be shining, much like the Gift.
We had many long talks after that, in fact I found that I missed her just about any time she was not with me.
We fell in love. It was like we were living a story that had already been written by the Gift Giver, to us it was exciting and new, but to him we were always meant to be together. We married. I’m sure it was a beautiful ceremony, I don’t remember anything but the beauty in her eyes. We made vows, and we spent the rest of our lives keeping them. We had children, two girls and two boys. We raised them with the knowledge of the Gift Giver and when their hearts were ready they accepted the Gift as well. Time passed. It seemed like the blink of a moment, then one day we were grandparents. We felt even richer, not only did we have the Gift, but we had a family that was a living treasure, expanding and enriching the world. I was old and happy, content and longing to thank the Gift Giver in person for such a wonderful life. When I died I guess my heart gave out, the doctors would call it a heart attack, but I think it burst because it could no longer contain all the love and joy. My wife came not long after me. I don’t think she missed me that bad, she knew we would be together forever, I think she was jealous that I had gone to be with the Gift Giver.
When I closed my eyes for the last time on earth, I opened them for the first time in a new realm. I saw a flat landscape all around except for a steep mountain rising from the plain. There was a wide road stretching off into the vast distance, it skirted the mountain and continued on the plain until it was lost to the horizon. It was crowded by many people. I wanted to ask them where they were going, but their eyes were blank as they followed the road, like they were dead inside. Then I looked and notice a smaller path going up the mountain. I knew in my heart that this was where I was supposed to go. In fact there was no other option for me, it was like my heart was drawing me on and my feet were following as fast as they could. The narrow path winded up the mountain, I climbed quickly, I didn’t grow tired in this realm and I was excited to get to the top. Shortly I came to a ceiling of clouds, as I broke through I came into a wonderful light. The sun was shining more up here, reflecting off the white clouds. I could see the end of the narrow path above me. I sprinted the last few steps and found myself before an ornate golden gate. It was beautiful, it seemed to shine with the same beauty as my Gift, but it was not overly large or proud. It was like it was meant for one person to enter at a time, a beautiful but personal end to this secret path. I knew in my heart that the Gift Giver was eagerly waiting on the other side. As I studied the gate more I saw that it had a peculiar shaped keyhole below the golden doorknob. I knew instantly that I had the key, I had carried it for many years now, all in preparation for this moment. I held my hands in front of my heart and felt the weight of the diamond Gift fill my hands. I inserted the diamond key into the door and it swung open.
I was startled as I heard a shout rise up, like walking into a surprise party. I recognized many people from my life, people who I knew had carried the Gift, the Key, too. There were new faces too, I was excited to get to know them, I knew they were now my extended family. Then I saw Him. The Gift Giver. He smiled at me and gently said, “welcome home.”
And I knew I was.