Treat/gift idea: Candy Book
Story:
An Older
Brother’s Gift
It was the Christmas season of 1994. Nine-year-old Jaron and
his six-year-old brother, Parker, were excited. They had entered a reading
contest sponsored by a grocery store in their hometown. The two students who
read the most books would each win a brand-new bicycle. All they had to do was
have their parents and teachers sign for each book they read. Two bikes were to
be awarded, one for the first-to-third-grade levels, and one for the
fourth-to-sixth-grade levels.
Parker was especially excited because this was a way for him to
earn a bike. He really wanted one. He was tired of watching his older brother
ride around on the new purple ten-speed bike he had earned by working at a yard
sale. Parker thought that it would be great to earn a bike of his own by reading
books. So he started to read books as fast as he could. He read Curious George,
Green Eggs and Ham, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear. But no matter how many books he
read, someone in his grade level had read more.
Meanwhile, Jaron had not been all that enthusiastic about the
contest. When he went to the grocery store and checked the big chart with all
the readers listed and how many books each had read, however, he could see that
his younger brother had little chance of winning the contest. Touched with the
true meaning of Christmas, the joy of giving, he decided to do for Parker what
he could not do for himself. So Jaron put away his own bike and, library card
in hand, went to work. He read and read. He read when he wanted to ride his
bike. He read as much as eight hours a day. The thrill of perhaps having such a
wonderful gift to give kept him going.
The day came when the final lists were to be turned in. Jaron’s
mother took him to the store, and he turned in his list, and then admired the
prize-winners bikes on display. The store manager watched him admire the shiny
red twenty-inch bike. “I suppose that if you win the contest,” the manager
said, “You’ll want the larger bike, won’t you?” Jaron looked up at the man’s
smiling face and said, “Oh, no sir. I would like one exactly this size.” “But
isn’t this bike too small for you?” “No sir—I want to win it for my little
brother.” The man was surprised. He turned to Jaron’s mother and said, “This is
the best Christmas story I’ve heard all year!”
Jaron’s mother hadn’t known that he had worked so hard for his
little brother. She looked at Jaron with great pride and joy as they went home
to await the contest results.
Finally the phone call came! By reading 280 books, Jaron had
won! With his parents’ help, he hid the bicycle in his grandma’s basement until
Christmas Eve. He could hardly wait to give Parker his gift!
On Christmas Eve, the whole family gathered at Grandma’s home
for a special family home evening. Mother told the story of Heavenly Father’s
gift to the world of His Son Jesus Christ. Then she told the story of another
older brother’s love. Although it wasn’t the great sacrifice the Savior has
made for each of us, she said, it was a sacrifice, and it showed how much the
older brother loved his younger brother. Parker and his family listened to the
story of a brother who had read 280 books to win his little brother a bike.
“My big brother would do something like that for me,” Parker
said. At that, Jaron ran to the other room, where Grandma had moved the bike.
The rest of the family proudly grinned while he wheeled out the two-wheeled
treasure he had earned for his younger brother. Parker ran over to the bike,
and the brothers hugged over the top of it.
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