PLASTIC MARGARINE TUB LIDS -THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS SYMBOL OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

Symbolism surrounds us at Christmas time. Candy canes, wreaths, holly, and the star on top of your tree all have symbolic significance. For me, however, all of these Christmas symbols are eclipsed by a plastic margarine tub lid. Here’s why:

I was seven years old and Christmas was approaching. My mother and I had gone shopping at the local “Ben Franklin” five and dime. At one point she picked up a cut glass sugar bowl and remarked about how pretty she thought it was. She put it back on the shelf and resumed shopping. After she had walked away I picked it up and looked at the price. As I remember, it was slightly over a dollar (this was 1965). I realized that I had enough allowance money saved to buy it and determined that I would get it for her for Christmas. The next day I got on my bicycle, peddled back to the store, and made the purchase.

I remember being very proud on Christmas morning when she opened it and seemed so happy to be receiving the gift. She filled it with sugar and sat it prominently on the kitchen table. Later that morning I was horsing around in the kitchen with some new Christmas toy and I accidentally knocked the sugar bowl off of the table. It hit the tile floor and the lid shattered into a thousand tiny pieces.

I was instantly petrified. First of all, I was afraid that my mom would be horribly disappointed and secondly I was afraid of my father coming in the room and seeing the mess. Let’s just say that when he lost his temper, things could become very unpleasant. My mom came in and saw what had happened. She quickly got a broom and got the mess cleaned up. She sat the bowl back on the table and went to the refrigerator and took the lid off of a tub of margarine. She cleaned it off and put it on the sugar bowl and it was a perfect fit. She then took me in her arms and explained that accidents happen, that people are always more important than things, and that she loved me very much.

Later that same year my mom was diagnosed with schizophrenia and our family was never again the same.

The cut glass sugar bowl with the plastic margarine lid remained on our kitchen table for many years. It was there through grade school and High School. It was there when I came home from college for visits and it was there when I brought my new-born son home for the first time. It was there long after the disease had robbed my mother of any ability to express love. It even remained on that table for several years after she passed away.

I never sat at that kitchen table and looked at that margarine lid that I didn’t feel loved. That is why a plastic margarine tub lid has become a very strong symbol of unconditional love for me.

So, do me a favor. If you haven’t already finished trimming your tree, I'd like to ask you to go to your refrigerator, pull off one of those plastic lids, and place it among the branches. Then think about all of the times in your life that you have seen evidence of God’s ultimate expression of unconditional love.

Merry Christmas.