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from Volume 28 No. 4 January-February 2008

The Ugly Mug

On the top shelf of my kitchen cupboard sits an ugly coffee mug. I don't like the mug. It is shaped like the head of a deer and the handle is made to look like one of the deer's antlers. When I look at the mug, one antler goes around the side of the mug while the other antler looks like the deer ran into a tree and knocked his antler into a weird angle and is hanging down the side of his head.

The deer only has one big eye that is shaped like a human eye. A real deer's eye is a different shape than a human eye. It also has an eyebrow painted above the eye—deer don't have eyebrows. The mug was probably made by someone who has never seen a real deer.

The mug is white, green, brown, black, yellow and red.

It is the ugliest mug I have ever seen. Everything about it is wrong.

I hate the mug...but I love the friend who gave it to me.

My friend is an elderly lady who has trouble walking. When she took a trip to visit her daughter, she stopped at a gift shop to buy a souvenir for me. She thought about me while she was on her vacation. She walked around a gift shop on her painful, stiff leg and she spent her money to buy the mug. She carefully packed the mug in her suitcase so it wouldn't get broken on the flight home. Then she wrapped it and drove eighteen miles to bring the mug to me.

The mug had a sticker on it that said, "Genuine handmade souvenir of Colorado," but on the bottom of the mug was printed, "Made in China."

My friend has given me other gifts, including a pair of earrings that actually burn my ears. I'm not allergic to anything but those earrings are made from some sort of metal that make my ears feel like they are on fire. She also gave me a pink sweater that is so big I could hide an elephant in it and still have room for two more people. She bought it because she liked the color, she didn't remember to check the size.

I can't wear the sweater when I'm with her because if she saw it, she'd know she bought the wrong size and she'd feel bad.

I can't wear the earrings because they hurt my ears and I'm afraid my ears might get infected and fall off.

I hide the mug on the top shelf unless my friend comes for coffee. When she comes, I always get the mug off the shelf and drink my coffee out of it and she smiles when she sees it and that makes me feel good.

She's a good friend. I would never hurt her feelings so I live with an ugly mug.

I wonder how many gifts I've given to friends over the years that they didn't like.

I wonder if they hide my paintings in the attic and dig them out and hang them on the wall when I come to visit. If I give them a vase or a bowl (or a mug) I wonder if they hide it on the top shelf in the kitchen. If I give them clothes, do they hang them in the back of the closet?

Gifts are funny things. We often give people something we would love to have for ourselves and then we are surprised when they don't feel the same way about them. We give gifts to show our love.

I remember that when I hold the ugly mug, my friend loves me.

When I hold the mug and the points on the handle shaped like an antler dig into my fingers and when I look at the strangely shaped deer's eye and when my coffee gets cold too fast because the mug is too thin to hold in the heat...I remember that I have a good friend who loves me.

She is going on vacation next month.

I hope she doesn't bring me anything.

"It is more blessed to give than to receive."  Acts 20:35