A Christmas Tail...

There was a young mother that loved Christmas.  Over the past 3 years her very favorite part of Christmas had been when she found that special gift that always had her heart leap.  No, it wasn't the new expensive toy her little one wanted or the picture gifts she always sent up to her elderly family, it was when God told her about someone that need something from Him and He knew she would get it to them.

So, the young mother started to go through the holiday season, decorating her house, making Christmas cookies, but hadn't heard that soft whisper from God telling her what gift He needed her to deliver.  So, a couple weeks before Christmas Day the whisper came.  "Ashley's Mom needs a gift from Me.  She needs help.  She is a single Mom and the holidays are hard for single Mom's.  I need you to give her something to help and tell her it's from Me."

The young Mom was immediately torn.  She would love to help, but what if Ashley's Mom was insulted by the gift?  What if she go upset at Ashley thinking she said something that made the young mother feel sorry for them. 

A few days later the young mother went to the store and picked of 2 gift cards and went over to the huge racks of cards in hopes that she would find one that would say exactly what she wanted it to.  One that would explain this gift was from God, not her.  

As she went through the cards one by one her hand landed on the right one.  It was a square card that had the little cartoon Linus from Charlie Brown on it.  She opened it up and it said "And suddenly there were with the angel a multitude of the Heavenly host praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will toward men".  It was so cute, it was a talking card and hearing those words come from that little voice was exactly what she had been looking for.

So she bought the card and the gift cards and took them home.  The holidays got busy, sicknesses were going around and that made it so the young mother didn't bump into Ashley before Christmas.  She knew Christmas was coming very quickly, it was only a day away.  She ran into a friend who knew Ashley and lived out by her so she asked the friend to drop the card off when he got a chance.

Christmas came and went, New Years too.  Then she got a voicemail from Ashley, but work was keeping her busy so she didn't have time to listen to the voicemail until a few days later.

"Hey, this is Ashley, I need to talk to you about something, give me a call"

Uh-oh.  I hope her mom isn't upset, the young mother thought, so she called Ashley back.

"Hello?"

"Hey Ashley, how are you?"

"Good, I just woke up"

"You sound kinda sick."

"Yeah, I've been sick.  I am over at a friend's house and I fell asleep"

"Oh, well, I got a voicemail from you and wanted to give you a call back"

"Oh, I wanted to say thank you for the card.  My mom and I were so surprised."

"Your Mom wasn't upset was she?"

"No, No, she just said it was a lot of money and said she should given half of it back, but I told her you probably wouldn't take it back.

"Oh. Well, I'm glad she wasn't upset.  I hope you know that it was God that told me to give you that, you have never given me the impression that you needed money or anything, I just want you to know that."

"That is what I told my Mom.  We were so surprised and grateful to get it though.  My mom recently got dropped from payroll and had a very hard time making a Christmas for me and my sister.  She had to ask my Grandparents for money.  When we got your card we needed food and some new pants for school because we didn't have any.  So we went and got some clothes and food."

By now the young mom had a lump in her throat, but she didn't want Ashley to notice.  She pulled herself together and said "Well, good, then the money went right where it needed to"

As she ended the phone conversation she thought to herself What if I would have let my worries keep me from giving them that money?  

But, she hadn't.  She said a quick prayer to God thanking Him for letting her be part of His special gift to someone else and thanked Him for the belated Christmas gift He had just given her.

I promise, this will be my last Christmas post

Goodbye Christmas, may we celebrate you everyday, not just once a year.