How silently, how silently...

I was leaving on vacation, and it was a messy rainy evening as I drove along Route 23..and I needed some windshield washer..
remembered a young couple, who had come to one of the
Christmas Eve services. They had known me as "a
minister that cares." Unbeknownst to me, one of three
young children had been seriously ill...While they
weren't regular Church people, whatever such is, they
came...and I had a sermon about children, and babies,
and that sometimes it's too difficult to travel to
Bethlehem...
as we lit our candles that night, and I shared a
prayer for Christmas, I gazed as the candles were
being lit, and in the candlelight, saw this young
couple holding one child, their hands around the
others and tears in their eyes...

I lost track of Patty and John, but driving on route
23 on my way for vacation and the Victory Store was still open.
there she was coming out of the
store, she started to cry, rushed up to me, and said
'You probably don't remember us, but you healed our
baby." I DID remember them, and listened as she told
me that after that Christmas Eve service, there was a
miracle, and the child who had been so very sick
slowly began to feel better...while she credited ME, I
said, it was God who allowed me to welcome others as
we followed the Star to the baby and HE worked the
miracle. she went on to tell me, that they through
that miracle had become Christians and her husband was
now a deacon she told me, and she taught Sunday
School...

The gifts of Christmas are varied, and like this young couple, whom many people would have ignored, received a gift that they never anticipated, or felt they deserved. It isn't, despite what the advertisements tell us, the gift with the highest pricetag, or even something material which says "I love you." rather it is a gift, shared in silence, oftentimes, reminds me of why it is that so many people feel disappointed after the gifts have been opened...we feel loved, when we receive a special 'gift' that we didn't deserve, but rather we received it anyway...how important it is like this young couple what if they had said to me "you shouldn't have. we don't deserve this." rather than what she said excitedly that night in our chance meeting "Thank you Peter and thank God"