For Priscilla and RW…

The spirit of Christmas is unmatched by any shiny objects, regardless of the constant selling of the season. The spirit is in the heart and soul, given and uplifting without expectation or conditions. The spirit simply is. With stars brightly shining we look up to find what is always within…

Once upon a time, long ago (meaning, before the internet and cell phones)…

One Christmas Eve, there was an unexpected knock on the door of my wife’s childhood home in upstate New York. Her family lived on an old, unlit country road so this was uncommon, to say the least.

Melanie’s father, Doc Miller, opened the door to find a stranger in need. This man’s car had broken down up the road, and he had walked to the nearest house to use the phone to get help. Doc Miller went out in the cold winter night to investigate and found this stranger’s wife and young children huddled and shivering in the disabled vehicle.

It took only a moment for him to realize this family could use a break. So, he handed the man the keys to his own car and said to bring it back when things were taken care of.

You can’t make this stuff up! My father-in-law gives his car keys to a total stranger and expects him to return the vehicle— whenever.

Well, the stranger did return the car. And every year thereafter, this man and his family stopped by the Millers on Christmas Eve to say, “hello” and catch up on a year’s worth of living.

For me, one of these stories makes up for all the year’s front-page bad news. Compassion and honesty can play second fiddle in the headlines, but not in the human heart….

photo credit: M.B. Louis (unsplash.com)