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All Wrapped Up



  J.C. and Rollie Hall ran into a problem during the 1917 holiday season: Business had been too good.

  At their Kansas City, Missouri shop they ran out of the white, red, and green tissue papers that were the era’s standard gift dressing.  Poking around the shop, Rollie realized they still had a stack of fancy French paper meant for lining envelopes. On a lark, he placed the lining paper in a showcase and priced it at 10 cents a sheet. The paper sold out instantly.

  The next year, the Hall brothers pressed their luck, offering the fancy paper again during the holiday season.  Again, it flew off shelves.  By 1919, the brothers had decided to print their own special paper for concealing presents, and the gift wrap business was born. Today, wrapping paper is a $3.2 billion industry, and you can still buy it by the roll at the Halls’ store, Hallmark. [i]

  You can hardly imagine today a gift today not wrapped up in something fancy, but the greatest gift given to mankind was only wrapped in swaddling cloths

And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke 2:7

 God’s only son came not in kingly garb, not in royal apparel but as a simple baby.  His exact birth site unknown, his first crib a feeding trough, the only witness other than his parents on that first night a few ordinary shepherds.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:16

  Yet this child would bring the greatest treasure, to mankind: salvation.  Because of this gift we can be right with God. By being clothed with him, we are taken as sons of God (Galatians 3:26-27).

  You would think something so awesome could start out so ordinary.



[i] From Article by Ethan Rex on mentalfloss.com
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