Beneath My Skin

Today's Les' birthday. It rocks to be the birthday boy. It rocks even more to receive presents. He looked at the pile of presents in his room stacked untidily at one corner and they brought a smile to his face.

He began opening his presents one by one. The first one. Wow. A Tag Heuer watch. Cool. Thanks Mum and Dad, he thought.

The second one was a teddy bear. From Mary. Stupid present, he thought as he threw it behind him immediately.

Coming up next was a framed up jigsaw puzzle done by his whole class. Good effort, but unimpressive, he thought.

An Armani exchange belt. Not bad.
A Mont-Blanc pen. Good
A bottle of handmade stars. Matter that occupies space.
A digital camera. Who needs 2?
He continued unwrapping more presents.

After he finally unwrapped all his presents, Les leaned back against his armchair. He never knew that unwrapping presents could be so tiring. Well, he got quite a number of good items that he wanted. A few extra pieces of rubbish too. But somehow, he felt empty. This sense of emptiness that came from within. Actually, he even thought that he was unhappy. There was a missing present. A present that did not come. From Grace.

He never really knew Grace. Strangely, she would send him a present every year. He thought that it would be awkward accepting presents from someone he did not really know well, so he always rejected them and passed them back to the mailman.

This year, the present did not even arrive. She must have been angry. She might be heartbroken too after all the rejections. Maybe she finally decided to ignore him like he had ignored her.

The missing present made him perplexed and troubled. Why did he reject the present time and time again? Afterall, everyone loves presents. Why could he accept all the other presents but not this one? What is so hard about accepting her presents?

He went for a stroll in the park, trying to find some comfort in the tranquility of the serene nature. He never expected himself to be bothered by a missing present from someone he did not really know.

A bright area from a distance caught his attention. He went towards it and saw many candles on the floor. The lit candles formed alphabets that made up the words 'Happy Birthday'. Behind those words were a stack of presents piled up one on top of the other. Wow. He took a closer look. He rememebered some of them. They were the ones he rejected. He suddenly felt a surge of warm air surrounding his body, like an embrace that hugged him tight. His sense of emptiness started leaking away. At the corner of his eye, he saw Grace. He had decided to accept Grace.

Everyone received presents before. The rich ones probably received limos, yatchts and private jets. The not so rich ones, birthday cakes and greeting cards. Even the poorest of the poor received hugs, kisses and smiles before. Apart from all that, the fact that we are here in this world now is a gift, that's why they call it the Present. No doubt, this gift of life is wonderful. But there is another present far more beautiful than Life. One can collect all the presents in the world but miss out on just this one, he would have missed everything.

Amazing Grace.