My baby was 3 months old. I've been accused on more occasions than one of being
an overprotective mother. (It's probably true.) My 10 year old was in the play
held at the Rescue Mission. It's a big annual event for all the under privileged
children in the county.
We were in no way in need of their services, but we were attending the services
on Sunday to help it get on their feet. My oldest daughter was a lovely angel,
and even though the place was packed........I wasn't going to miss seeing her,
even if we were surrounded by tons of germs.
I found a seat on the front row and was getting the baby settled in when a man
and little girl sat down right behind me. The pews were scooted very close to
accommodate the crowd. The little girl was lovely.........but, she was sick! Her
cheeks were bright red with an obvious fever and her nose was draining a yellow
mucous and she was only 12 inches away from my baby! I was horrified! I
certainly didn't want my brand new baby sick. My "unholy" attitude
stunk.......but, I was preoccupied with those thoughts through the whole play.
At the end of the play, they have the annual gift giving. Every child there gets
a wrapped toy of some sort that people donate. I was watching all the children
open their presents and keeping an eye on the little beautiful sick
urchin...(the one who was breathing germs on my baby) and noticed that although
she was clean........ her clothes and her fathers' had been sewed and repaired
many times over. Her hair was clean and she had been very well behaved during
the whole play.......(probably too sick to be loud).
Finally, they handed her a gift with her name on it...and she turned to her
daddy and ask if she could open it. He told her that would be the only present
she had........but, if she wanted to open it now...it was alright with him! Very
sweetly, this child, probably not 5 years old, told her daddy, "I'll wait."
SHAME overwhelmed me! Although her toy was one that I could have donated myself,
the vision of all the toys under our tree at home made me feel sick!
I wrapped up the baby and tried to run through the crowd to get to the director
of the mission. I wanted that little girl's name and address. ( I didn't want to
ask her dad for fear of him.) I knew I would make sure that little girl had new
clothes and lots of new toys. By the time I got to Bro. Self, the pastor, and
turned around to show him the little girl.......they were gone!
We ran to the entrances and no one had seen them leave. I found my husband and
told him to go see if they were walking down the road, because the guy watching
the parking lot said no one had left in a car. I checked the bathroom and stood
on a pew to look for the tall man with the beautiful little blond haired angel
with him. They were no where to be found and no one remembered ever seeing them.
Obviously, they were real angels. They were there to show me my false pride, my
overindulgence, and that my Christian heart was not in the right place. Oh, yes,
the shame stayed and stayed. It shames me again as I relate the story.
God taught me a valuable lesson that night. Never has another Christmas went by
that we haven't made a point of teaching our children that it is indeed "Much
better to give than to receive!"
We help other families every Christmas. And to this day........no one ever
remembers seeing the tall man with the beautiful blond-haired sick little
girl...........and the staff never made out a gift to the little girl named
'Charity'.
Sue Henley doupray2@multipro.com
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