Christmas

My newest creche - from Tanzania

Our local radio station is doing a series on good deeds, and started it off today with the story of the man in Memphis who went to a local Citgo and paid for the gas of 80 strangers.

Christmastime always reminds me that there is some kind soul out there who has remained anonymous for years, but continues to bring tears to my eyes nearly twenty years later.

My parents got divorced when I was just turning 14 (its a little scary that 14 was almost 20 years ago!!!), and the first of everything is complicated - the first birthdays, the first holidays. The first Christmas is one of the biggest. We had never been very well off before. After the divorce, though, our family finances took a decided turn for the worse. I felt very guilty because my braces cost us $60 a month - and sometimes that $60 was the make or break amount to live off of. We weren't really sure we could really afford to do Christmas that year.

We grew up in a small, rural town, and people at church didn't tend to have a lot of extra money. But, when we went to the car at the end of church that Christmas, there was a surprise for all of us - five gifts (one for each child and one for mom) and twenty dollars each. There was no card, no signature, only a simple wish for a Merry Christmas.

Besides my current amazement that there really is a place where you can leave your doors unlocked, is an ongoing feeling of gratitude to whoever it was that made such a sacrifice for us. You see, I felt very alone in the years after the divorce. This was back before every other kid was from a "broken home." No one knew what to say, so no one said anything. But, someone decided to give love and support through their anonymous Christmas gifts.

These Christmas gifts continued until all the kids had graduated high school, which was a fairly long commitment. While they may never know the impact this kind gesture had, I spend each Christmas trying in some small way to share the pure love of Christ just as selflessly as they did. And I hope one day, perhaps in the eternities, I get my chance to say thank you.