This time of year, I often reflect on a chilly day some twenty years ago standing on the roadside waiting for the Christmas parade to start. The mid-afternoon sun cast a shadow of the steeple from the church across the street directly on the spot where I was standing.
As the crowd gathered and we all waited for the parade, a young mother brought her two boys, roughly aged five and seven, to stand next to me on the curb. The boys appeared to be withdrawn and showed no signs of excitement about the parade.
As the parade started and candy began flying in all directions, I began to pick up candy to hand to the boys. They were gathering candy but didn’t move from the spot they had been assigned. Several more floats passed, and the boys’ pockets were full. So, I began to put candy in the hoods of their jackets.
The young mom looked at me and said, "I’m going to walk back to the apartment and get bags to put their candy in. They can stand here with you, right?” It took a moment for me to process the reality that a stranger was going to leave her children at a parade with a stranger. But I said yes, and mom walked up the hill away from her kids.
The boys had no reaction to their mother leaving them behind. As I asked their name and age, I noticed the circles under their eyes, their frozen facial expressions, and teeth decaying from neglect. I began to pray over the two young souls and became acutely aware that this moment was not an accident. This moment was appointed.
Just then, another float came by. It was a group from the church across the street dressed as the characters from the Nativity story in the Bible. I got down on my knees so I could hear them when they spoke. I asked the boys if they knew the story of the baby Jesus. The oldest boy told me they’d never heard of Jesus.
Knowing mom would be back any minute, I talked quickly and explained the story of Christmas and that Jesus is God’s Son. I told them anytime they see a church or a cross to remember that Jesus loves them. Mom returned and they left, never to see them again. I often wonder if they remember that conversation and how they are today. And I pray for them every year, wherever they are.
Joy and Hope
All the world lives in the shadow of a cross-bearing steeple. Believers, non-believers, doubters and haters each bear in their conscience the reality of Christ the King. Through misgivings, misunderstandings, denial, and disobedience, faith, worship, and everything in between, the Word of God lives.
Why did the angels declare the arrival of the Christ child “good news of great Joy?”
Is it not because…
-the world is broken, but God is love.
-humanity is lost in sin and corruption, but Jesus is God’s grace and salvation.
-we have no power to change ourselves, but in Christ, we are filled with the Spirit who assures us that eternity with God is our real home.
-we hurt, despair, and suffer, but the God of mercy and love comforts us.
-we live a short, mortal existence, but God, in Christ, has promised eternity to those who believe.
Jesus embraced the sinners, healed the hurting, spoke grace and encouragement to the weak, and willingly gave Himself so that others may live. May we take the joy and hope that Jesus gives us and offer the same hope to someone else. And may that joy and hope be light to those who can not see, love to those who are unloved, life to those who are dying.
I hope that one day when I am with Jesus in eternity, I will meet two young men who remembered that Jesus loves them because of a story of joy and hope they heard on the side of the road at a Christmas parade.
But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” Luke 2:10
Copyright @ TA Boland 2024
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