This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”
(Luke 2.12
NRSV)
Off in one corner is another case. Behind its glass pane, another doll sits alone. It's an old, raggedy doll, much the worse for wear. But then, it began its life raggedy.
That this doll was loved, there is no doubt. Nor that it was born of love. For all its shabbiness and it was shabby the day it was made it had, and has, a value untold. A sign on it says, “Doll belonging to London slum child, circa 1905.”...The doll is unnamed. The child is unnamed.
The doll's body is made of tattered brown socks, stuffed with rags. Its arms are two thin sticks of wood, covered in wool. Its hair is a sock. It wears a plain gingham dress and a rough linen apron. For all its simplicity, it was made with painstaking effort...
...the head is the heel of a man's shoe. Only that. A worn down, battered heel with the nail heads visible around the edges. For a face, the doll has small bits of paper pasted on. Paper eyes, paper nose, paper mouth. The mouth does not smile.
"Some might call it ugly. That would be wrong, very wrong...
...It is possible the slum child made it for herself...perhaps, it was a gift. Created by a mother or a father who was poor in possessions...All they could give was love beyond measure...
One does not need to have wealth to create something valuable. One need only reach deep within where “value” is defined. One need not have wealth to give a gift. One need only have the desire to give. To use whatever poor things are at hand and to make of them the best gift possible.
Dear Jesus, from your humble manager you made the best gift possible. Amen.