A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story

Bobby was getting cold sitting out in his back
yard in the snow. Bobby didn't wear boots; he
didn't like them and anyway he didn't own any.
The thin sneakers he wore had a few holes in them
and they did a poor job of keeping out the cold.

Bobby had been in his backyard for about an
hour already. And, try as he might, he could not
come up with an idea for his mother's Christmas
gift. He shook his head as he thought, "This is
useless, even if I do come up with an idea, I
don't have any money to spend."

Ever since his father had passed away three
years ago, the family of five had struggled. It
wasn't because his mother didn't care or try,
there just never seemed to be enough. She worked
nights at the hospital, but the small wage that
she was earning could only be stretched so far.

What the family lacked in money and material
things, they more than made up for in love and
family unity. Bobby had two older and one younger
sister who ran the house hold in their mother's
absence. All three of his sisters had already
made beautiful gifts for their mother. Somehow it
just wasn't fair. Here it was Christmas Eve
already, and he had nothing.

Wiping a tear from his eye, Bobby kicked the snow
and started to walk down to the street where the
shops and stores were. It wasn't easy being six
without a father, especially when he needed a man
to talk to. Bobby walked from shop to shop,
looking into each decorated window. Everything
seemed so beautiful and so out of reach.

It was starting to get dark and Bobby reluctantly
turned to walk home when suddenly his eyes caught
the glimmer of the setting sun's rays reflecting
off of something along the curb. He reached down
and discovered a shiny dime. Never before has
anyone felt so wealthy as Bobby felt at that
moment.

As he held his new-found treasure, a warmth
spread throughout his entire body and he walked
into the first store he saw. His excitement
quickly turned cold when the salesperson told him
that he couldn't buy anything with only a dime.
He saw a flower shop and went inside to wait in
line.

When the shop owner asked if he could help him,
Bobby presented the dime and asked if he could
buy one flower for his mother's Christmas gift.
The shop owner looked at Bobby and his ten-cent
offering. Then he put his hand on Bobby's
shoulder and said to him, "You just wait here and
I'll see what I can do for you."

As Bobby waited, he looked at the beautiful
flowers and even though he was a boy, he could
see why mothers and girls liked flowers. The
sound of the door closing as the last customer
left, jolted Bobby back to reality.

All alone in the shop, Bobby began to feel alone
and afraid. Suddenly the shop owner came out and
moved to the counter. There, before Bobby's eyes,
lay twelve long stem, red roses with leaves of
green and tiny white flowers all tied together
with a big silver bow.

Bobby's heart sank as the owner picked them up
and placed them gently into a long white box.
"That will be ten cents young man." the shop
owner said reaching out his hand for the dime.
Slowly, Bobby moved his hand to give the man his
dime. Could this be true? No one else would give
him a thing for his dime!

Sensing the boy's reluctance, the shop owner
added, "I just happened to have some roses on
sale for ten cents a dozen. Would you like them?"
This time Bobby did not hesitate, and when the
man placed the long box into his hands, he knew
it was true.

Walking out the door that the owner was holding
for Bobby, he heard the shop keeper say, "Merry
Christmas, son, and may God bless you" As he
returned inside, the shop keeper's wife walked
out. "Who were you talking to back there, and
where are the roses you were fixing?"

Staring out the window and blinking the tears
from his own eyes, he replied, "A strange thing
happened to me this morning."

"While I was setting up things to open the shop,
I thought I heard a voice telling me to set aside
a dozen of my best roses for a special gift. I
wasn't sure at the time whether I had lost my
mind or what, but I set them aside anyway. Then
just a few minutes ago, a little boy came into
the shop and wanted to buy a flower for his
mother with one small dime."

"When I looked at him, I saw myself, many years
ago. I too, was a poor boy with nothing to buy my
mother a Christmas gift. A bearded man, whom I
never knew, stopped me on the street and told me
that he wanted to give me ten dollars. When I saw
that little boy tonight, I knew who that voice
was, and I put together a dozen of my very best
roses."

The shop owner and his wife hugged each other
tightly and as they stepped out into the bitter
cold air, they somehow didn't feel cold at all.

May this story instill the spirit of Christmas
in you enough to pass this act along.

"Our past is neither an accident nor a mistake.

We have been where we needed to be, with the
necessary people. We can embrace our history,
with its pain, its imperfections, its mistakes,
even its tragedies.

It is uniquely ours; it was intended just for
us. Today, we are right where we need to be. Our
present circumstances are exactly as they need to
be, for now...."