Three Little Words 

By John W. Vander Velden

A box clumsily wrapped with wrinkled paper.  The bow had fallen off.  It seemed so out of place among the many brightly wrapped packages.  But on Christmas day when the gifts were opened it was found to contain a few pieces of red and green construction paper glued together in what might seem a haphazard thoughtless manner.  Written with glue and glitter, on this conglomerate of cut bits and pieces, were only three little words…I love you…

As time passed and the other gifts, the ones in perfectly wrapped fancy packages, had been lost, broken, or stored away in some forgotten corner of a closet or attic.  That piece of glued scraps of red and green…that piece of paper with those three little words was stored in a box with other treasures.  No, that box did not contain gold or precious gems.  It was not a box filled with stock certificates or bonds.  Yet it contained the things most valuable, the most priceless things in that home.  A baby’s first picture…a lock of golden hair…a small tooth…and some read and green paper with three little words!