The following are two excerpts from Christmas Is Calling
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Angels We Have Heard On High
It was unseasonably warm a week ago and winter’s chill had come in a fury. Now the snow came down in not small clumps, but like someone throwing snowballs. I was cold hungry and I needed shelter for the night.
“I’m sorry; if only you’d come sooner, the shelter is full.” the person at the shelter called the Inn of the shepherd said as I looked in to see a Christmas tree burning brightly.
I had myself a bitter laugh. Here it was Christmas Eve and there was no room at the Inn. I looked around, no stable to be found, but a cardboard box from some large appliance someone was getting for Christmas lay before me.
How I remembered those Christmases of excesses, when money was plenty. When my life was different, and I had the love of my life by my side, but all of that was gone in the blink of an eye. I lost my job and then chased away my love, with anger and bitter words. Mary had then withered and died. Then I had lost my home and dignity, as I now walked the streets, living day to day on handouts.
I lay down to sleep on the cold ground, wrapped inside my box. The wind was bitter and bitingly cold. I pulled my ragged coat tighter round me. And still the cold battered me. I was almost asleep when I heard the heavenly music, the choir singing ‘Angels We Have Heard On High’. Before I had even thought about it my lips were singing the song too and I started wishing for an angel to take me out of the cold on this chilly night.
Suddenly before me appeared a woman, at least at first I thought she was a woman. I somehow knew without a doubt this was an angel. Her hair was dark, her wings hidden close to her back, small and almost invisible; until that is she bent forward and then the wings unfurled to their full size. They were majestic wings that from wing to tip each were six feet long and dark black in colour like a crow’s wings. I questioned why had I been sent a dark angel? Was I so unredeemable?
“Contrary to popular belief, angels come in all shapes and sizes, with all kinds of wings,” she admonished, as if she read my mind. Then she continued, “Lionel, I thought you were different and showed no prejudice.”
“Sorry,” I apologized, ashamed and suddenly frightened.
“Lionel, my dear man, and yes you are a good man; fear not for I have watched over you all your life. You need not dread me.”
“You’ve watched over me? Then where were you when I needed you?”
“I have been beside you. I have seen your best and your worst, and so has the almighty. You’ve learned much in the last week, and the almighty has seen your kindness, when you had so little yourself. He saw you give your last dollar to that teenager who was hungry.”
“Is that why the almighty finally answered my prayer?”
“Lionel, my dear man. Who stood with you when you needed shelter? Who found a meal for your empty belly? Who lifted your feet and made them light, when you felt you could walk no more?”
“The almighty was with me?”
“Yes, he made the unseasonable mild weather. He made the lady see that you needed money for food. Remember how surprised you were that she gave you a twenty?
“Yes.”
“Come Lionel. Come with me to your reward. There will be no more pain, no more trial, no more sorrow, only his light,” she said taking me by the hand and pulling me into glorious light.
Light, all-encompassing peace and joy, everlasting enveloped me and there just in front of me, my dear wish, my wife.
“Hello Lionel. I’ve been waiting for you,” Mary said as she hugged me.
“Poor beggar, he died during the night.” I heard from far away.
But that life had no meaning for me anymore, I became light and felt nothing but peace and joy. So I had one request from the almighty. Let me share this love and joy at Christmas to all those deserving ones. And so God rewarded me. With Mary by my side, we are Christmas angels. We help the most deserving and see they get the Christmases they need. So if you feel that joy and that tug at your wallet this season, open it and share what you can. Make someone’s Christmas as special as mine.
©Sheilagh Lee December 6, 2012
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Home Invasion
He crept swiftly passed the sleeping girl, checking to make sure she didn’t hear his footsteps on the threadbare carpet. She stirred slightly and he paused for moment, taking a huge breath hoping she wouldn’t hear him. He slipped passed the boys room, as the cat almost tripped him. He worried that his large frame would make more noise and awakened the family before this job was done. He continued down the hall past the parent’s bedroom.
Softly his feet patted on the carpet and then a little harder on the wooden stairs as he tiptoed down them.
He entered the family room and spotted some baked goods left on a plate. Tempted he took one off the plate and thought about eating it. He then looked down at his round belly and almost stopped but then he thought dieting for woosies. Besides he could diet in the New Year after this job. The baked good dry and appetizing almost made him not eat it. But he was hungry, or at least he thought he was, even as he felt it go to his stomach like a lead weight, he continued eating. When he finished the baked good, he walked around the living room. Where he looked was bare, hardly anything filled the room. A well-worn chair well-loved covered in duct tape to hold it together stood in the corner. A sofa long and looking saggy was there covered in a crochet blanket to hide its flaws.
In the corner of the dark room stood a Christmas tree; if you could call it a tree, calling it a tree would be kind. The tree looked like something out of Charlie Brown’s Christmas. He stared at it for a few moments, watching the twinkling lights. A single strand blinked at him. He then decided to get the job done before this family woke. He took out his bag looking for his tools. He found them and quickly completed the job. Placing the tools back in his bag, he packed up and snuck out of the house.
The girl woke first and as she went into the living room, she squealed waking the boy who came running in response. The parents came next, worried about the screaming from their child.
The parents stood their shocked and puzzled staring into the living room. The whole family gazed and looked in shock at their living room. Where once a duct taped chair stood;. its depilated state an eyesore in the room, a leather chair was now positioned.
And not just any chair, a La-Z-Boy chair that could recline. The sofa was leather too and matched perfectly. A rug, a beautiful tapestry of figures on horseback, and with golden threads, appeared under the furniture. And in the corner where their Charlie Brown Christmas tree had stood, a beautiful Douglas fir stood in its place. It fairly glowed with the five hundred lights strung around it. The ornaments they’d placed so lovingly on their tree were there, with many more new ones filling the branches. And underneath the tree a bounty of riches, many pretty packages layered beneath the tree.
“I don’t understand this,” retorted the father, shaking his head.
“Me either,” the mother claimed, covering her mouth in wonderment.
“It was Santa Claus,” insisted the children.
“It must have been,” mother agreed. “Thank you, whoever did this. Because of you, my children will have Christmas. God bless you ten-fold.”
“Yes, thank-you Santa and God bless you,” the girl child reiterated, opening a present and squealing to find a Justin Bieber doll.
The man who had crept into the house sat in his home, his feet in front of the fire warming them.
“Did they hear you?” asked his wife.
“No,” he replied.
“Did your brother, Paul help you with the furniture?” she enquired.
“Yes, we got it all in and I used my tools to make sure it was all put together right.”
“And the tree did it fit?” she wanted to know.
“Yes, and it was beautiful,” he commented “The presents are all under the tree?”
“Yes, dear, including the Justin Bieber doll, Ellen wanted,” he stated happily.
“They don’t know who did all this. Do they?”
“No, they’ll never know their neighbours got together and did this,” he answered.
“Good. I hope they believe Santa Claus did all this.”
“Of course after all it was Santa Claus,” he replied, with a wink and touched his nose.
“Santa needs to go on a diet,” his wife commented.
“Yes, a little treadmill and then his belly won’t be so jolly,” he laughed. “I need a couple of hours sleep then we can have our Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas, come to bed Santa.”
“Merry Christmas, to you too honey, and to all a goodnight.”
~0~
©Sheilagh Lee December 6, 2012
Wonder
The wonder of Santa Claus
Seen through children’s eyes
Brings back treasured memories
Of Christmases long ago
The anticipation of Christmas morning
The family gathering too
Seen through rose-coloured glasses
The bittersweet remembrance
Siblings gone too soon
Of parents gone too
Forgotten for a moment
Lost in the anticipation
Of the celebration
So long ago.
©Sheilagh Lee December 5, 2017
Merry Christmas, \Happy Holidays whatever you celebrate I hope you have fun.
