I watch the news and I see reports of soaring un-employment. I see stories of tragedy striking families. I hear about friends who are, “cutting back this year” because a cut in hours at work has cut their budget. I see engineers working at a dollar store because that is what was available. I have children on my bus that don’t think Santa can find them in that little trailer they had to move into. I could go on and on about the bad, but I am sure you have heard it too. I will soon be 52 years old and this is the worse I remember things being in general.
But wait what is that at the end of the tunnel? Is that a light I see? The last few weeks I have been hearing strange and wonderful things. In a small town in Colorado a woman paid the balance of a family’s layaway for their kids Christmas. I was talking about this to a friend and he said, no, that was in Florida. So being one to want all my facts straight, I looked it up on the internet. My God people do you know what is happening in this land we love? All over the country people are randomly paying off layaway bills with toys on them.
I watched the news tonight and I saw a story about a family that lost everything in a fire. Today Santa shows up on a fire truck with toys and gifts for the whole family. A free toy store for the needy a few days ago had bare shelves. Today it was full to overflowing. Last week a group was considering canceling their Christmas meal program for lack of food. That day 50 thousand pounds of food shows up at their door.
As we quickly approach Christmas and Hanukah I say to you my friends Christ is not gone from Christmas. God has not deserted us. We will heal the wounds we have suffered and we come back as strong as ever. No government agency will save us. We will do it ourselves with help from on high. I do not care what your faith or religious bent, this tends to be the season we all celebrate something. This year I will celebrate the giving nature I have seen in people.
