The Holiday Spirit

I have to admit, I'm usually a little bit of a grinch about Christmas. It's full of stuff I don't like - spending money, going to the post office. But last weekend someone did something so nice for me, it reminded me of all that is good in humanity. You'll probably read this and laugh at me for blowing it out of proportion, but I seriously can't over-emphasize how much this meant to me. Here's the story:

On Sunday I was at an unnamed airport, going through security. A friend had given me a gift, and she said "don't open it until Christmas!" I had already packed my suitcase and it was very full, so I just tossed the gift into a shopping bag with the rest of the items that had over-flowed from my suitcase. After checking my suitcase, I went through security. Here I was thinking about how great I was because I didn't have any contraband - not even a tube of toothpaste! (All my liquids were in my checked bag - or so I thought).

The woman watching the screens called for someone to check my bag. Ugh, they want to open my present , I thought. That was dumb of me. Oh well, I'll just find out what the present is a little early.

The man who checked my bag was very friendly. He said, "Do you have a bag that you can check?" I said, "No, I've already checked it." He sighed and said that he wished I had put the present in that bag.

"If you need to open it, that's OK," I said.
"No, it's not OK," he replied. "Do you know what I'm going to find in here?"
"I thought it was candy," I said, but I was getting a little bit worried. Did they see something metal on the x-ray? I was really hoping that my friend didn't buy me a mini BB gun or biological weapon of some sort.
"I'm going to find liquids and gels," he told me.
"Ohhhh," I said slowly, as it dawned on me that he would have to throw away my present. He took a knife and started cutting open the wrapping paper on my present. He looked inside the paper, but then he stopped. He told me that in his professional opinion everything in the box would fit into a 1-quart container, and he taped the present back up.

"Don't open it until Christmas," he said. I almost cried.

At that moment, I felt very guilty for ragging on Christmas. This guy went to a lot of trouble to make sure I had that present. He was a modern-day Santa Claus, and I was a little kid, wide-eyed because this world can still amaze me.