About a week
before Christmas, Mom bought a new nativity scene. When she unpacked it, she
found two figures of the Baby Jesus. "Someone must have packed this wrong,"
mother said, counting out the figures. "We have one Joseph, one Mary, three wise
men, three shepherds, two lambs, a donkey, a cow, an angel, and two babies. Oh,
dear! I suppose some set down at the store is missing a Baby Jesus because we
have two."
"You two run
back down to the store and tell the manager that we have an extra Jesus. Tell
him to put a sign on the remaining boxes saying that if a set is missing a Baby
Jesus, call 7126. Put on your warm coats, it's freezing cold out there." The
manager of the store copied down mother's message, and the next time we were in
the store, we saw the cardboard sign that read, "If you're missing Baby Jesus,
call 7126."
All week long
we waited for someone to call. Surely, we thought, someone was missing that
important figurine. Each time the phone rang, mother would say, "I'll bet that's
about Jesus." But it never was. Father tried to explain there are thousands of
these scattered over the country, and the figurine could be missing from a set
in Florida or Texas or California. Those packing mistakes happen all the time.
He suggested that she just put the extra Jesus back in the box and forget about
it.
"Put Baby Jesus back in the box?! What a terrible thing to do," said mother.
"Surely someone will call. We'll just keep the two of them together in the
manger until someone does." When no call had come by 5:00 on Christmas Eve,
mother insisted that father "just run down to the store" to see if there were
any sets left. "You can see them right through the window, over on the counter,"
she said. "If they are all gone, I'll know someone is bound to call tonight."
"Run down to the
store?" father thundered. "It's 15 below zero out there!"
"Oh, Daddy,
we'll go with you!" We began to put on our coats. Father gave a long sigh and
headed for the front closet. "I can't believe I'm doing this," he muttered. We
ran ahead as father reluctantly walked out in the cold. Tommy got to the store
first and pressed his nose up to the store window. "They're all gone, Daddy," he
shouted. "Every set must be sold. Hooray! The mystery will be solved tonight!"
Father heard
the news still a half block away and immediately turned on his heel and headed
back home. When we got back into the house, we noticed that mother was gone and
so was the extra Baby Jesus figurine. "Someone must have called, and she went
out to deliver the figurine," father reasoned, pulling off his boots. "You kids
get ready for bed while I wrap mother's present." Then the phone rang. Father
yelled "answer the phone and tell 'em we found a home for Jesus." But it was
mother calling with instructions for us to come to 205 Chestnut Street
immediately, and bring three blankets, a box of cookies and some milk..
"Now what has
she gotten us into?" father groaned as we bundled up again. "205 Chestnut. Why
that's across town. Wrap that milk up good in the blankets, or it will turn to
ice before we get there. Why can't we all just get on with Christmas? It's
probably 20 below out there now. And the wind is picking up. Of all the crazy
things to do on a night like this." When we got to the house at 205 Chestnut
Street, it was the darkest one on the block. Only one tiny light burned in the
living room, and the moment we set foot on the porch steps, mother opened the
door and shouted, "They're here! Oh thank God you got here, Ray! You kids take
those blankets into the living room and wrap up the little ones on the couch.
I'll take the milk and cookies."
"Would you mind telling me what is going on, Ethel?" father asked. "We have just
walked through below zero weather with the wind in our faces all the way."
"Never mind all that now," mother
interrupted. "There is no heat in this house, and this young mother is so upset,
she doesn't know what to do. Her husband walked out on her, and those poor
little children will have a very bleak Christmas, so don't you complain. I told
her you could fix that oil furnace in a jiffy. My mother strode off to the
kitchen to warm the milk while my brother and I wrapped up the five little
children who were huddled together on the couch.
The children's mother explained to my
father that her husband had run off, taking bedding, clothing, and almost every
piece of furniture, but she had been doing all right until the furnace broke
down. "I been doin' washin' an ironin' for people and cleanin' the five and
dime," she said. "I saw your number every day there, on those boxes on the
counter. When the furnace went out, that number kept goin' through my mind. 7162
7162 "Said on the box that if a person was missin' Jesus, they should call you .
That's how I knew you were good Christian people, willin' to help folks. I
figured that maybe you would help me, too. So I stopped at the grocery store
tonight, and I called your missus. I'm not missin' Jesus, mister, because I sure
love the Lord. But I am missin' heat. I have no money to fix that furnace."
"Okay, okay,"
said father. "You've come to the right place. Now let's see. You've got a little
oil burner over there in the dining room. Shouldn't be too hard to fix. Probably
just a clogged flue. I'll look it over, see what it needs."
Mother came
into the living room carrying a plate of cookies and warm milk. As she set the
cups down on the coffee table, I noticed the figure of Baby Jesus lying in the
center of the table. It was the only sign of Christmas in the house. The
children stared wide-eyed with wonder at the plate of cookies my mother set
before them. Father finally got the oil burner working but said, "You need more
oil. I'll make a few calls tonight and get some oil. Yes sir, you came to the
right place." Father grinned.
On the way
home, father did not complain about the cold weather and had barely set foot
inside the door when he was on the phone. "Ed, hey, how are ya, Ed? Yes, Merry
Christmas to you, too. Say Ed, we have kind of an unusual situation here. I know
you've got that pick-up truck. Do you still have some oil in that barrel on your
truck? You do?"
By this time
the rest of the family was pulling clothes out of their closets and toys off of
their shelves. It was long after our bedtime when we were wrapping gifts. The
pickup came. On it were chairs, three lamps, blankets and gifts. Even though it
was 30 below, father let us ride along in the back of the truck. No one ever did
call about the missing figure in the nativity set, but as I grow older I realize
that it wasn't a packing mistake at all. Jesus saves, that's what He does.
Based upon a true
inspirational story which happened in 1941
© 2001 and Published by \o/ Praize Books |