When I was a little girl, my MawMaw Hale would invite all her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to our house at Christmas time. The tree would be in the front room decked out in old tyme glass ornaments and strands of silver tinsel. People would be crammed onto every available seating surface and others standing around the room or spilling over into other few rooms of the house. She would serve the candies and homemade desserts she’d prepared in advance – peanut butter balls, divinity, pecan pie, and various cakes and cookies. Every single person would get a gift, even if it was just a pair of socks or a bag of homemade peanut brittle.
When I got a little older, there was one year when I guess MawMaw must not have felt like I got very much at the family gathering and gave me the gifts she had gotten for my Christmas that year. Only I didn’t realize that was what she gave me until I ran to the tree Christmas morning and found nothing but some apples and oranges in my stocking. Fighting back tears of hurt and confusion, I looked to her as she came in the room behind me. “…But I thought I’d been good?”
The truth I learned that year, tough as it was, prepared me the following year to recognize the Spirit of Christmas that prompts well-meaning Santas around the world.
…It was a few weeks before Christmas when a man showed up at the front door with a load of presents. Mawmaw Hale let him into the house, and they talked while I stood in front of the wall-mounted gas heater surveying the things he brought. For ME, it appeared. This well-dressed fellow that we had never met somehow knew about MawMaw Hale and me and cared enough about us – complete strangers – to bring gifts and stand in our drafty house talking to her about life. And probably the Lord. MawMaw was a Godly woman who often spoke of the Lord and no doubt would be thanking Him for sending this kind man to us at Christmas time.
It makes sense that people are motivated by benevolence during Christmas time. After all, the birth of Christ was the kindest, most loving thing ever done for broken humanity. As soon as Eve’s teeth pierced the flesh of the fruit in the Garden, all of creation shifted with the influx of sin. And a perfectly made world was forever tainted. Mankind, created in the image of God, shamed and separated from God, hid from Him because of their sin. And in His tremendous love for them, He covered their sin (Genesis 3:21) and laid out a plan for the redemption of all humanity (Genesis 3:15).
A Redeemer foretold in Isaiah 53: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering…He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” The same One the prophet foretold in Isaiah 9: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Of the gifts that good-hearted man brought me that day, I only remember a couple. One was a red mesh plastic stocking full of candies and small toys. The other was a watch that I still have to this day as a reminder to love my neighbor, give to those in need, help the hurting, and do what I can to share with a sad and confused world the best gift they’ll ever know. Our Savior. The Redeemer. Immanuel. God with us.
Only the Lord knows what impact we make when we are willing to be His hands and feet.
I don’t know how I missed this one, but I knew her as Granny Hunter when she stayed so many years at uncle Frank’s house. She wasn’t married to Mr Hale very many years til he passed. By then, I was grown and didn’t get many chances to go by her house. I remember seeing you there when you were a baby.
Me and Billy were down that way and stopped by to see her. She was one of the kindest, sweet women I’ve ever known. I loved her cooking. I hated it when she got cancer. That was so sad. I thought of her like my own Granny though I knew she wasn’t. I don’t know if that old house is still there, but it held/ holds many memories! I wish things , including myself, had been different back then. I wasn’t close enough to God. I was a babe in Christ. Easily led away from what I truly should have been. I can never repay you, God or anyone. But I am trying to be a better man, better Dad and Pawpaw as well as do whatever I can for Jesus. With the help of God, and the people He put in my life, such as my awesome prayer partner (APP) , I’m growing in the Lord, feeling His annointing, and trying to be there for someone else. Even if it’s thru prayer, or sending them a prayer cloth. I hope God will supply a vehicle soon because I want to go see the widows and pray for them. Pray for your Daddy and of course, I’m praying for you !
Love, Daddy