Devotional for December 16

When our kids were in middle school they really wanted a trampoline. So we got them one for Christmas. In our family we have a tradition of leaving big presents out, unwrapped to be discovered on Christmas morning. Often this meant laying out a gift on the couch by the Christmas tree after the kids had gone to bed. 

So in this spirit we had the trampoline in a big box hidden in the garage and after the kids were asleep we brought it out in the back yard to assemble. I’ve assembled doll houses and set up easy bake ovens, so I thought, “How hard could it be to set up a trampoline?” Trouble was the kids weren’t so little and didn’t go to bed early. So at midnight, in below freezing weather, I embarked on this project. It turns our there are a lot of parts on a trampoline and most of them are made of metal. If I wore gloves to keep from my hands from freezing to the parts, I couldn’t fit all the nuts and bolts together. Then, when I had the frame together I had to attach the jumping surface with dozens of springs...which got progressively harder to stretch from to surface to the frame. Melanie came out to help but couldn’t tolerate the cold so was only able to work for ten minutes or so at a time. We thought we’d never finish before morning. It was the hardest assembly I’ve ever done in my life. But I didn’t give up. 

With great effort, I finished the assembly at about 6 AM—exhausted. But shortly thereafter, the girls woke up—oblivious to my pain—and were absolutely thrilled when they saw what Santa left in the backyard! The present gave years of joy to them, their friends and their cousins. And when they were grown and gone, we re-gifted the trampoline to friends, a young couple with a baby on the way.  This was my biggest and final elf project.  

—Bob Muckle