[Blessings2You]

I've surely told this story before, but when I'm feeling all tired and crabby and humbuggy and pathetic, I pull up this Christmas memory:

Christmas Eve, maybe 1982? I'll admit it, I was feeling wicked sorry for myself. My marriage was crumbling, finances were tight, my family lived in other states. It was Christmas Eve. I wanted to be home with my kids, getting ready for the Candlelight Service, but I had to work at the post office until 5:30. There wouldn't be time to get ready and make it to the service.

I wasn't looking forward to Christmas Day. We lived in an old drafty house, and it would just be my husband and I and our two children. As I said, I was just feeling sad and lonely and not very Christmassy.

It was almost time to lock up and walk home, when I looked out the front door and thought, "Wow, that man looks so much like my dad." Shocked, I realized it WAS my dad, and my mom, walking toward the post office, and right behind them my friend Anne, grinning away.

My dad wasn't driving anymore, but my friend had left her two little kids with a sitter and driven FIVE HOURS round trip on Christmas Eve to go fetch my parents and bring them to me for Christmas!

I will never forget that generous act of love. It reminds me of what Christmas is about, that kind of Love, no matter what the circumstances.