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This is a long story
but one that has touched my heart
deeper than words can discribe.
Enjoy
One Christmas
One Christmas we had an interesting experience
that I would like to share.
Halfway through December,
we were doing
the regular evening things
when there was a knock
at the door.
We opened it to find
a small package with
a beautiful ceramic lamb inside.
We looked at the calendar
and realized that
the 12 days of Christmas were beginning!!
We waited excitedly
for the next night's surprise
and only then,
with a gift of a matching shepherd,
did we realize that the lamb
was part of a nativity set.
Each night we grew more excited
to see what piece we would receive.
Each was exquisitely beautiful.
The kids kept trying to catch
the givers as we slowly built
the scene at the manger
and began to focus on Christ's birth.
On Christmas Eve,
all the pieces were in place
but the baby Jesus.
My 12-year-old son
really wanted to catch our benefactors
and began to devise
all kinds of ways to trap them.
He ate his dinner in the mini-van watching and waiting,
but no one came.
Finally, we called him in
to go through our family's
Christmas Eve traditions.
But before the kids went to bed
we checked the front step--
no baby Jesus.
We began to worry that my son
had scared them off.
My husband suggested that maybe
they dropped the Jesus and
there wouldn't be anything coming.
Somehow something was missing
that Christmas Eve.
There was a feeling
that things weren't complete.
The kids went to bed
and I put out Christmas,
but before I went to bed,
I again checked to see
if the Jesus had come.
No, the doorstep was empty.
In our family,
the kids can open their stockings
when they want to,
but they have to wait
to open any presents
until Dad wakes up.
So one by one,
they woke up very early
and I also woke up to watch them.
Even before
they opened their stockings,
each child checked to see
if perhaps during the night
the Baby Jesus had come.
Missing that piece of the set
seemed to have an odd effect.
At least, it changed my focus.
I knew there were presents
under the tree for me,
and I was excited to watch
the children open their gifts,
but first on my mind
was the feeling of waiting
for the ceramic Christ Child.
We had opened
just about all of the presents
when one of the children
found one more for me buried deep
beneath the limbs of the tree.
He handed me
a small package from
my former visiting teaching companion.
This sister was somewhat
less-active in the church.
I had been her visiting teacher
for a couple of years and then,
when she was asked
to be a visiting teacher,
she requested to go with me.
I had learned over time
they didn't have much for Christmas,
so that their focus was the children.
it sounded like she didn't get
many gifts to open,
so I had always given her
a small package; new dish towels,
the next year's
Relief Society lesson manual
--not much,
but something for her to open.
I was touched when at Church
on the day before Christmas,
she had given me this small package,
saying it was
just a token of her love and appreciation.
As I took off the bow,
I remembered my friendship with her
and was filled with gratitude
for knowing her
and for her kindness and sacrifice
in this year giving me a gift.
But as the paper fell away,
I began to tremble and cry.
There in the small brown box
was the baby Jesus.
He had come!
I realized on that Christmas Day,
that Christ will come into our lives
in ways that we don't expect.
The spirit of Christ
comes into our hearts
as we serve one another.
We had waited and watched
for him to come,
expecting the ceramic
"knock at the door and trying of feet,"
but he came in a small,
simple package that represented
service, friendship, gratitude, and love.
This experience taught me
that the beginning of
the true spirit of Christmas
comes as we open our hearts
and actively focus on the Savior.
But we will most likely find him
in the small and simple acts
of love, friendship and service
that we give to each other.
This Christmas,
I want to feel again the joy
of knowing that Christ is in our home.
I want to focus on loving and serving.
More than that,
I want to open my heart to him
all year that I may see him again.
Author Unknown
 
 
 
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