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trosie
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 550
| Posted 12/19/2002 6:05 AM (GMT -6) |   | REMEMBER, the act of giving is so much greater than receiving. When we give we receive much more back than money could ever offer! Giving your heart to Christ is worth much more that receiving all the finest jewels, gold, tapestries ... When we give our life to Christ we receive a ticket to "paradise" to use at the end of this short journey on earth. Praise God! Whether you receive a gift this Christmas or not know that the greatest gift you could EVER receive is already yours.
Now, here's a story for all you out there that DON'T believe in Santa Clause:
I remember my first Christmas party with Grandma. I was just a kid. I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," she jeered. "Even dummies know that!"
My grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day cause I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her world-famous cinnamon buns. Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me.
"No, Santa Claus!" she snorted. "Ridiculous! Don't believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad. Now, put on your coat, and let's go" "Go? Go where, Grandma?" I asked. I hadn't even finished my second cinnamon bun.
"Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those days.
"Take this money and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.
I was only eight years old. I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.
I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church. I suddenly thought of Bobbie Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs.Pollock's grade-two class.
Bobbie Decker didn't have a coat. I knew that because he never went out for recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobbie Decker didn't have a cough, and he didn't have a coat. I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy Bobbie Decker a coat. I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real
warm, and he would like that.
"Is this a Christmas present for someone?" the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down. "Yes," I replied shyly. "It's ... for Bobbie." The nice lady smiled at me. I didn't get any change, but she put the coat in a bag and wished me a Merry Christmas. That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat in Christmas paper and ribbons, and write, "To Bobbie, From Santa Claus" on it -- Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy. Then she drove me over to Bobbie Decker's house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially one of Santa's helpers.
Grandma parked down the street from Bobbie's house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk. Then Grandma gave me a nudge. "AlI right Santa get going." I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his doorbell and flew back to the safety of the
bushes and Grandma. Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobbie.
Forty years haven't dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my grandma, in Bobbie Decker's bushes. That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were: ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team.
Praise God that we are on God's team! We get the opportunity to show Jesus to the world everyday. The more love we give away the more He fills us up -- it's amazing! There's an endless surplus of love flowing from the Father to us and through us to the world.
"In the same way, let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and praise your heavenly Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16
Merry Christmas!
trosie 
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GregBoyd
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 1818
| Posted 12/20/2002 6:42 PM (GMT -6) | | Great story Trosie. Tis better to give than to recieve. If you loose your life, you find it.
The joy and life is in the giving. God knows it. God does it. God is it. And we are alive to the extent that we mimic God (Eph 5:1).
Doc
"In Christ...the ONLY THING that matters is faith energized by love." Galatians 5:6 | | Back to Top | | |
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Springs
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 636
| Posted 12/20/2002 7:17 PM (GMT -6) | | Thanks Trosie!
I wish I would have thought of that. When I told my youngest that his Dad and I were Santa he didn't believe me. When I added that we were also the Easter bunny, and the tooth fairy, he looked at me like I was nuts and asked how I had time to go to all those houses!
Springs
"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if were so, it would be; but as it isn't , it ain't. That's logic." | | Back to Top | | |
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trosie
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 550
| Posted 12/20/2002 8:46 PM (GMT -6) | | Thank you Doc and Springs for responding. I was feeling a little lonely on this thread. 
I want to share my purpose and intention for posting that story -- perhaps this is a testimony? I have struggled ever since I was a little girl with the fact that some people are all alone at Christmas time. It has always bothered me that some children and families have very little thus do not get to experience the kind of Christmas that many American children get to experience. It has always bothered me to hear how the suicide rate goes up at this time of year...
-BUT-
Praise God! God has been moving and working in me. The sermon you preached last weekend Doc was moving and motivating. God has been showing me this Christmas season (and the sermon really helped) that "JOY TO THE WORLD THE LORD HAS COME" is not contingent on the external. I have a deeper understanding that joy is NOT conditioned on whether Christmas time is a happy or a melancholy time. Joy is not contingent on having abundance. We can have JOY (regardless of our circumstance) knowing that Jesus has given to each of us the comfort in trusting that whatever storm we walk through, whatever trial we face He will be with us ALWAYS!
I feel empowered because I have come to understand what it means to sing JOY TO THE WORLD THE LORD HAS COME even when walking through the valley. This joy that has come (Jesus) is able to transform us and then to use us in making a difference in the world. Because of this gift, this joy, we are empowered to go out and feed the hungry, clothe the naked (like the boy did in that story!), comfort the hurting. In so doing we will be filled more and can find the comfort in knowing that although there will be the hurting in this world we can do our part through Christ to bring love. Praise God that we have the GREATEST gift to offer to those in need. Jesus truly is the greatest gift we could ever, ever receive!
trosie
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
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