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Text Box: BECAUSE CHRIST WAS BORN The young reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper . . . A long time ago, in a time when children’s toys were made from solid metals, wood, ceramic, glass, but nere even a hint of plastic, there was a young reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper. Yes, he wore glasses, but, no, he did not duck into telephone booths and put on a caped costume. He was more powerful than a locomotive, faster than a speeding bullet, and able to leap over the drainage ditch in the front yard with a single bound. He had seen, experienced, and woefully participated in the horrors of war and not only survived but was strengthened by the experience in many ways. Impatient, he learned patience over the decades of raising the six children with which his marriage was blessed, and through the almost idolizing love for his wife which blazed in his heart. The depth of that love overflowed and encompassed his children, and manifested itself in a special way as Christmas approached one year. They had recently purchased a suburban home on the VA Bill. The two oldest children, boys, were at the young age where they were sufficiently coordinated to play with complex toys. But by today’s standards, the family’s finances would be deemed those of the poor, especially since his wife did not have a job outside of her home - but considering the character of children who are not raised by a full time mother the financial “trade off” was well made. He wanted to give his two sons something special for Christmas. After much searching the parents settled on something extravagant: two metal pedal cars, one for each son. These were automobiles of a size that a child could sit on a seat behind the steering wheel, and power the car using foot pedals. The automobile could be made to move forward, backward, and the front wheels to turn by turning the steering wheel. Made of very heavy or thick metal, the cars would last for many

$Text Box: years - and they did. But the child size automobiles were of such cost that there would be insufficient money to purchase anything more than an handkerchief for the grandparents, the parents for each other, or for anyone else. Unlike today, with its credit culture and lack of sense of fiscal responsibility, the parents were children of The Great Depression and very conscious of the pitfalls of irresponsible spending. They were very aware of their privilege of home ownership, especially one located near their Church which had just established a good school. But there was something which compelled them, especially him, to obtain these most prized gifts for their two sons. And so they did. What was it that compelled them to provide these gifts for their sons? The list of what it was not would cover many pages. The list of what it was is found in one word, Love. Not the mushy, gushy, irrational emotion which is often confused with love. Not the possessive, analytical, or comparative forces which are occasionally confused with being associated with love. Nor the love of the Natural Law, love based in nature. True Love, Love founded in God, now easily accessible through Christ God. Today’s world has difficulty imagining the agony which accompanied the decision to purchase and to actually purchase these gifts. Not only was the household budget fractured, the lessons learned from the Great Depression tested to almost breaking, but others for whom there was great love were to be slighted with gifts of insignificant cost - but not of insignificant value. For the grandparents of the two boys agreed whole heartedly with the boys receiving the automobiles. Before the coming of Christ mankind most frequently comprehended God’s love indirectly. The event of Christ made direct knowledge of God’s love much more readily accessible. Those$

Text Box: who touched that love as it reached out to them, and who then accepted that love, found it effected every aspect of their life. Those who retained that love from God were compelled by that very love to reach out with that same love. Thus it was that the two boys received the child sized automobiles that Christmas, which brought joy to the boys at the unexpected gifts, and to the adults in their lives. That same love lead to a strengthening of the religious life of that family. Evening family prayers and grace before meals were practices which laid a foundation and established standards which have been perpetually acknowledged. And in each individual of that family, and towards its extended family and friends, there has been established a loving concern each for the others despite extremely differing personalities, life styles, and opinions. In the midst of the commotion of the world remove yourself therefrom and thank God for His becoming one of us and doing all He did. The effect Jesus has on mankind because He became incarnate, was born, and did all He did, is beyond the ability of any one human or all of mankind together to imagine. Even the attempts to secularize Christmas through the multitude of secular oriented movies are unable to totally remove the concept of goodness, for the Grinch is compelled to return Christmas, Santa’s North Pole facility is rescued by people who once did not believe and believing save what they once sought to destroy, the child receives the wish for a family, and the natural, innate desire that equilibrium and decency be established is satisfied. But only because there is a sense that goodness has prevailed, and goodness has but one source and one means of being measured - holiness. +

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