“Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” Mark 10:43-44
The Christmas season is upon us! How easy it is to join in the hustle and bustle of this joyous time of year and forget the reason! The following is a true story of how a wealthy American family learned the true meaning of Christmas.
The year was 1925, Ursula was a young girl from Switzerland who came to New York City to learn English. She exchanged the magnificent Alps of her country for the canyons of buildings and cement in the busy city. She was employed as a servant by a Christian family who lived in a mansion on 5th Avenue. December came and with it mountains of gifts. Her job was to acknowledge them with thank you notes. She wanted to give the family a gift, but what could she give? They had no needs!
As she prayed, God answered her prayer and gave her an idea. On Christmas Eve, with money she had set aside, she went to a downtown department store and picked out a gift. She had it beautifully wrapped in Christmas paper and then set out to deliver it. She asked the doorman, “Excuse me sir, can you tell me where to find a poor street?” She described a slum area. The doorman replied, “What? Why you don’t want to go there!”
She next walked up to a policeman and asked, “Sir, can you please direct me to a very poor street?” “Yes,” he replied, “but it is too dangerous! You should not go there!” She next stopped a lady, but the people on the street looked strangely at her and ignored her request.
Finally, she saw a Salvation Army officer and asked him, “Sir, can you help me? I am looking for a small, poor baby, the poorest baby girl I can find.” “Yes,” he replied, I know of many.” “Oh please can you tell me how to get there?” He replied, “It’s dark now, but as soon as my relief gets here, I will take you by taxi. Do you have money for cab fare?”
So they went together in a taxi. Ursula told the driver her story and when they arrived at the address given, he said, “Take your time, miss, I‘ll wait for you. There is a very poor family, up 5 flights of stairs living in this dark, decaying, hopeless tenement building.”
“Shall we go up?” asked the Salvation Army officer. “Oh no, Ursula replied, they would try to thank me, can you go for me? Say it’s from ‘someone who has everything.” She tried to imagine the joy of that little family receiving a dress for the baby. She felt very warm inside! The taxi driver drove her back to her home and when she offered to pay, he said, “there will be no charge, I have been paid in full tonight.”
The next morning, all the presents were opened. It was quite a pile, but there was no gift from Ursula! She said, “I need to explain why you have no gift from me. You see, I saw that you already had everything money could buy. But God showed me something I could give you that you did not have. So I saved my money and I gave a poor baby a new dress, in your name on your behalf!!
The family was speechless! Tears flowed! Christmas was changed for that family forever because for the very first time, they really understood the true meaning of Christmas. The One who gave everything to come and die for us on the cross has given us many gifts and we only really understand His gift of love when we give it away. That’s the meaning of Christmas…God’s gifts to us cannot be placed on a shelf and stored, they must be unwrapped and given away! Invest in people for the Kingdom of God!
Your friend, Jean