It was fifteen days until Christmas, and I was on my way home to Crescent City, California. I had been staying with my grandmother in Erick, Oklahoma when we got the telephone call. On December 10th, my family home had burned down. Thankfully, my parents and my two younger brothers (eleven-year-old Richard, and eight-year-old Patrick) were okay. The fire had started in the old wood burning stove and spread to the rest of the house in a matter of minutes. There had been no time to save anything, not even our Christmas presents.
I knew Christmas was about more than presents. I knew we were celebrating the birth of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. My dad and mom made sure we knew God’s love for us was the important thing about Christmas. But, I also knew a Christmas without presents was going to be less that merry for two little boys. All of this was passing through my thoughts as I traveled home that eventful December of 1962.
By the time I arrived, people from our church had set up a mobile home for my parents and brothers. It wasn’t very big. Another friend had loaned us his camp trailer for my older sister, Sheila, who was supposed to be coming home for the holiday, and myself. I also had two older brothers who were married, and they were coming with their families. “Where were we going to put them all?” I wondered.
As I lay there my first night home, I wondered just how God was going to work this one out. I knew my parents didn’t have the money to buy us new gifts, and I just didn’t see where they were going to come from. I wondered where we would all sleep. Most of all I wondered if Rich and Patrick would be able to understand there might not be any presents at all. But I needn’t have worried. God had it all under control. I should have known that He wasn’t going to let the faith of two little boys down.
By the end of the week, everyone had arrived, except Sheila. People from our church provided places for my brothers and their families to stay, by setting up a couple more trailers on the property. Everything seemed set, except for two things. We didn’t have a place for dinner on Christmas Day, and there still were no presents. When I mentioned both of these problems to my mom, she just smiled and said, “Don’t worry Sharon, God will take care of everything. Hasn’t He always?”
Two days before Christmas, and still no Sheila. “Where was she?” I wondered.
In the meantime, a family from church called and said they were going out of town and wanted us to use their home for our Christmas dinner. I knew the family and I knew they had a beautiful home-- much bigger than ours had been. There would be room to spare!
Early Christmas Eve morning, Sheila called to say she would be in that evening. She apologized for being so late but explained she had some last-minute things to do. I didn’t care what had kept her, I was just glad that she was coming. She was my big sister, and I needed her right at this moment!
I waited anxiously at the door, till I heard her car coming down the drive. As I ran out to greet her, I remember thinking, “Now that she’s here, everything will be all right, presents or no presents.” God must have been chuckling as He thought of what He had prepared for me, a young girl with tiny faith.
After all the hugs and kisses were finished, Sheila said, “Come help me unload my things, okay?” As we opened her car doors, I stood amazed! Filling her front seat, her back seat, her trunk, anywhere there was space, were Christmas presents! Big ones, little ones, funny shaped ones, all wrapped in the most beautiful colors and ribbons I had ever seen! My big sister had gone out shopping as soon as she learned of the fire, and bought Christmas presents for us all. She was God’s answer to our “presents” problem.
“God will take care of it Sharon. Hasn’t He always?” my mom had said. Those words came back to me that night, as I sat looking at all those presents piled in the small living room of that tiny mobile home. I knew right then, the next time I faced a problem, I wouldn’t worry. I’d know that God would take care of it. “He always does,” just like Mom said.
Thanks mom, for teaching me that truth.
