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Proverbs 18:16
A gift opens the way for the giver
and ushers him into the presence of the great.

We have seen this one before. Gifts work to open doors. It is an old method of visiting Ambassadors. It is a means of softening the edges and demonstrating and open and generous spirit.

When I was a high school senior I invited a very popular girl to go with me to a “sock hop.” The weekend of the prom my family had a visit from my uncle and aunt who were traveling north from Florida. In their car they had a trunk load of coconuts they had picked up on the beach and were distributing along the way. Of course, these coconuts were still encased in their natural husk but what did that matter. They were novelties to many of us. As I was leaving my house for the dance the family pressed me to take two of the coconuts for my date’s grandmother, the girl’s chief care-giver.

The dance was a semi-formal affair in socks and I was decked up in my new light grey sports jacket, new gabardine trousers, polished shoes and spiffy tie. When the grandmother opened the door to greet me there I stood, dressed to the hilt and holding a large coconut under each arm. The grandmother was gracious but I learned later that she was puzzled on how to get the fibrous hull off the coconuts. However, but it was a gift neither her nor the girl ever forgot and which, I might add, brought them and me the gift of laughter for many years. Where were you Normal Rockwell when I needed you?

The moral of this story is “take a gift.” Take any gift, well, almost any. You never know how it will open doors until you try it. Make it nice, make it thoughtful, make it strange but make it memorable as a heartfelt gesture of appreciation.