My Story – Christmas

I remember as a child, being from an extremely poor family, and the oldest of 8 children, and what Christmas meant to us.  It was all about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  A Christmas Story of how He came into this world as a child as the son of a poor carpenter.  A story of how he lived a sinless life and then rejected by his own people.  A story of how far he came from glory to die on the cross for every mans’ sin.  Then, three days later, arose from the grave as he said he would.  He then ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. Christmas was a time to thank God for what we did have.

My mother cooked on a wood stove and we heated with coal.  During the winter, we would all sleep in the same room around the coal burning stove in an effort to stay warm.  Mom would wash clothes in a tub with a scrubbing board, we would heat water up and take turns taking a bath in another tub, we had our well water to drink, and of course, who could ever forget the outhouse?  We had no lights except for the coal burning lamps.  We even had to make up our own flour paste to patch holes in the walls.  Today, my daughters couldn’t even imagine a life style that way.  And, I thank God they can’t.  My brothers and sisters and I had very vivid imaginations.  We created the frizbie by throwing a hubcap, we invented the hola hoop by using bicycle tires we were able to find.

We didn’t realize that we were that poor until we went someplace.  Seeing the cars passing us by, the nice homes with electricity, Henderson Street lights, brought us to reality that we were at the very bottom of the human race.  Even at this, we did have one thing, my brothers, sisters, and I had love for one another. We believed that only God loved us.

Then one night on Christmas Eve, as we lay sleeping, we were awoken by a bunch of car horns.  A church brought us so much food and toys that made such an impact on our lives.  Much of the food I didn’t even know what it was.  Many of the toys I had never seen before. They brought in dolls that cried for my sisters, they brought trucks and cars for us boys.  There were even battery operated vehicles. They brought clothes for us all.  I have had many Christmas’ since that time.  However, this special Christmas I shall never forget.  The church members took time  during this busy season to show us we were important.  They sung Christmas Carols and told us about Jesus.  This church brought not only material things into our home, but they brought love and salvation to us.

Christmas is all about Jesus and the love he shows along with offering us salvation at no price to us.  For Jesus has already paid the price in full.  Today, we seem to have really gotten away the true intent of Christmas.  Christmas is so over commercialized and like everything else man has done, we have screwed up and forgotten all about God.

Thank you, God Bless, and Merry Christmas