A Blessing Book

Christmas Stories for the Heart – Compiled by Alice Gray
Warms the heart - speaks to the soul.

Wanting to feel something of Christmas, I picked up this book on my last library run, and found many touching, heart-warming stories in it. One in particular that appealed to me was The Manger Was Empty, retold by Casandra Lindell, about a missing baby Jesus from a local church’s nativity scene. After searching around the church, the pastor reported the missing baby Jesus to the congregation. All were disappointed to think someone might take baby Jesus from the nativity scene.

Later in the afternoon, the pastor took a walk around the area and saw Tommy, a small boy he knew, pulling a wagon. As he came closer he saw baby Jesus, wrapped in a blanket, lying in the wagon. The pastor made it clear to little Tommy the seriousness of taking baby Jesus. The small boy looked up,tears beginning to slide down his cheeks and said, “But Pastor, I didn’t steal Jesus. It wasn’t like that at all. It’s just that I’ve been asking Him for a red wagon as a Christmas present for a long time—and I promised Him that when I got it I’d take Him out for the first ride.”

Another story was titled Daily Gifts by Charles Swindoll. He makes a number of one line suggestions, such as: "Mend a quarrel. Express appreciation. Give a soft answer even though you feel strongly. Encourage an older person." This last one might be difficult for me to do, if it means someone older than myself. I live in a seniors complex and right now I’m the oldest person here that I know, though I think there may be a few residents older than I am. I suppose I’ll just have to assume that everyone here is older than someone. Or maybe he means anyone who falls in a certain age category. [So you ask, where does old begin? I used to ask myself that; I don't anymore. Perhaps that too will become another blog.] Mr. Swindoll suggests maybe doing one of these gifts per day leading up to Christmas. [But why stop there?]

There are numerous other suggestions for giving gifts of yourself. Mr. Swindoll ends the list of gifts with the following:

“Let’s make Christmas one long, extended gift of ourselves to others. Unselfishly. Without announcement. Or obligation. Or reservation. Or hypocrisy. This is Christianity, isn’t it?”