The Spirit of Christmas is alive and well. Every so often, someone does something out of the ordinary that unties the strings of your heart and the sun shines in. It can be in June or December, but it is best known as the true Spirit of Christmas.

Yesterday Becky and I went out to the Antique Barn to take several boxes of Christmas things to put in our booths and showcase. After we finished we ambled along the isles looking at things and bought a few items. At one of the booths there was a nice selection of night lights that took my eye. To get my attention, just put cat or angel things into view and I’m there.

I had a couple of cute angels in my hand and a wooden cat with a bird house on his tail and a bird on top of his head. They were adorable. Then I spied this night light with a very fancy cat as the cover. She was white with roses painted on her and gold accents on the face. The price was $15.50 and I thought about it for a minute…..after all it is Christmas and I should be buying gifts….not things for myself. However, another look at the kitty and I had to have her.

Juggling my other items with one arm/hand I moved to unplug the kitty. The whole display shifted and I knocked the light under my kitty to the floor…..of course it shattered the moment of contact. My heart sank lower than the floor. Becky and I have had booths there since 1998 and we have both worked part-time there. We both knew at once I would have to pay for the broken light.

The owner’s son came around the corner to see what happened and there I stood…guilty as sin. He picked up the pieces and showed me where there were more night lights in boxes……I hadn’t seen them. Instead I had tried to take the one on the display…….wrong thing to do. Troy immediately felt bad for me…..he knew I would pay for it but now I knew I couldn’t have the one I wanted. I put it back and went to the register to pay for my two angels and my wooden kitty.

His father asked what happened and we told him…..they both felt terrible for me but none of us had a choice about the outcome. The broken light must be paid for. I’ll admit, I had a lump in my throat and the joy I’d felt earlier fled down through my feet…..I was pretty “down” when I left the store. All afternoon I relived the incident, scolding myself each time. I was lower than a snake. I busied myself the rest of the day and tried to forget the whole affair.

Becky came down later in the afternoon and we visited a little……when she left for home I walked into the room I had wanted to put the night light in. I had things on my mind and didn’t see at first but eventually my eyes wandered to something laying on a table…….my old night light. I instinctively looked where it should have been and there in the plug-in was the kitty I wanted. In an instant I knew what happened. Becky went back to the store after we came home and bought the little kitty. She worked the switch-and-change when I was in the other room.

I didn’t feel such joy because I “got what I wanted” but I did feel immeasurable gratitude for Becky’s kindness. When anyone goes out of their way to try and take away a bad situation for me, I call it noble.

I’m sure she had fun wondering what my reaction would be when I saw it…..but she didn’t have that pleasure. When her phone rang I couldn’t see the smile on her face when I thanked her……but somewhere in between both moments…..the miracle of true gift-giving took place.

My heart, like the Grinch’s, just grew and grew with gratitude. Thanks Becky for being such a good kid………….

Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther