Will The Christ Child Come?
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 the gift of a matching
shepherd, did we
realized 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
manager 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 gifts, 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
dramatic "knock at the door and scurrying 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.
"To God be the glory"
Author: Unknown
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