It was four days before Christmas. The spirit of the season wasn't with me. The parking lot was crowded and the stores
were worse. My feet ached almost as much as my head. I was out buying for people who had everything already and I deplored
the high prices. This was anything but fun.
Hurriedly, I filled my shopping cart with last minute items and proceeded to the long checkout lines. I picked the shortest
but it looked as if it would mean at least a 20 minute wait.
In front of me were two small children - a boy of about 5 and a younger girl. The boy wore a ragged coat. Enormously
large, tattered tennis shoes jutted far out in front of his much too short jeans. He clutched several crumpled dollar bills
in his grimy hands. The girl's clothing resembled her brother's. Her head was a matted mass of curly hair. She carried a
beautiful pair of shiny, gold house slippers. As the Christmas music sounded in the store's stereo system, the girl hummed
along, off-key but happily.
When we finally approached the checkout register, the girl carefully a placed the shoes on the counter. She treated them as
though they were a treasure. The clerk rang up the bill. "That will be $6.09," she said. The boy laid his crumpled
dollars atop the stand while he searched his pockets. He finally came up with $3.12. "I guess we will have to put them
back, " he bravely said. "We will come back some other time, maybetomorrow."
With that statement, a soft sob broke from the little girl. "But Jesus would have loved these shoes, " she cried. "Well,
we'll go home and work some more. Don't cry. We'll come back," he said. Quickly i handed $3.00 to the cashier. These
children had waited in line for a long time. And, after all, it was Christmas. Suddenly a pair of arms came around me and
a small voice said, "Thank you lady."
"What did you mean when you said Jesus would like the shoes?" I asked. The boy answered, "Our mommy is sick and going to
heaven. Daddy said she might go before Christmas to be with Jesus." The girl spoke, "My sunday school teacher said the
angels in heaven were beautiful and all wore gold slippers because that was baby Jesus' favorite color. Now my mommy can
look like the angels when she wears her new gold slippers.
My eyes flooded as i looked into her tear streaked face. "Yes" I answered, " I am sure she will."
Silently i thanked God for using these children to remind me of the true spirit of giving."
NCBC College Ministry Home Page/ Resources / Forwards / The Spirit of Christmas
Send comments on the NCBC College Ministry web pages to Tina H. Young
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