Tuesday, December 11, 2001
Tuesday, December 11, 2001
How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and
sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
"Ready for Santa?" his father asked.
"I've been ready since August," young Lewis shouted. Before they could settle in for
Christmas, though, his father had an errand to run. That day his father found a family
whose "old man was out of work, in need of a shave and a haircut, his wife crying
because her babies were hungry."
"They're [down on their luck] and it's Christmas," Lewis' father said. "Nobody deserves
that." His father somehow found a barber willing to leave home on Christmas Eve, and
he took the man in for a shave and a haircut. Then he bought the family groceries. The
family had a number of children, but his father bought each one a toy for Christmas. "It
was a Christmas a man can carry around for a lifetime," Lewis writes. "Each year at
Christmas, with my father long since in his grave, I thank God that one is mine to
remember."
Christmas is a season of miracles and memories.
(1 John 3:17
NRSV)
Lewis Grizzard remembers one Christmas that was very special to him. He and his
mother and father only had one real Christmas together, he says. Only one Christmas
when they were actually in their own house with a tree, with coffee and cake left out for
Santa. That special Christmas Lewis' father had to work until noon on Christmas Eve.
Young Lewis waited anxiously for his father to return home. He waited for him at the
screen door, sitting and staring until the blue Hudson pulled into the drive way. At the
sight of his father Lewis ran out of the house and jumped into his arms.
God of peace, thank you for the miracles you have worked in my life. Help me to share
this Christmas with those in need. Amen.
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