“Then the King will
say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the
kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something
to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and
you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I
was in prison and you came to Me” (Matt. 25:34-36).
Hey Gang: My heart’s
desire was to share with you Christmas Season stories that, to me are why
Christmas is very special to Abba Father, and, therefore, for me
personally. Today’s story crossed my
path many years ago in a rather worn and torn book titled The Case For
Christmas by Lee Strobel.
It is the story of a young reporter who sat at his desk on a
very quiet day in the Chicago Tribune newsroom.
Strobel wrote: As I sat there my mind began to take me back to a series
of articles that I had written years before about the neediest people in
Chicago.
The Delgado family consisted of a grandmother, Perfecta, and
two grand-daughters, Lydia and Jenny.
They had recently been burned out of their previous, roach infested
apartment and now lived in a two-room roach infested apartment in another
tenement building. Strobel continued: I
was flabbergasted when I entered the apartment.
There was absolutely nothing in the apartment. No furniture, no rugs, nothing on the
wall. The kitchen was less than what we
would call meager and food supplies were very few and far between.
The girls did not have to choose what dress they would wear
that day for school, for they each only had one. No warm coat but one sweater between them
that they shared on the cold days as they ran to school.
Despite their poverty Perfecta had a warm persona about her
and a smiled on her face. She still
talked confidently about her faith in Jesus.
She was sure in her heart that Jesus had not abandoned her and the girls
and, one day He, Jesus, would hear her prayer and provide for their needs. Strobel said, “I never sensed despair or
self-pity in her home, instead there was a gentle feeling of hope and peace, even
to the point where it gave me a guilty feeling in my heart for all that I had
and did not appreciate.
After the visit he wrote an article of the plight of this
family and move on to other projects; but this day he could not get the
Delgado’s out of his mind. His curiosity
would not leave him so he decided there is only one way to find out – go and
visit them this Christmas eve. He
expected to find an apartment with the same basic necessities missing, but
hoped he would find them in more comfort than before.
To his amazement, when he opened the door, he was barely
able to get inside. The room was filled
with furnishings or every type, hanging on the walls, carpets on the floors, the
closet filled with food and the utensils to prepare for their meals and piles
of gifts filled the open spaces. The
article he had printed spurred the hearts of many people across Chicago and, as
always, happens, the people of America opened their hearts to the needs of
these hurting people.
He found the Delgado’s making list of where this item would
go, and another one over to that neighbor.
They were busy preparing to give many of the things that they had
received to their neighbor. When ask why
they are doing that, grandma responded the way each and every one of us should
answer that question as we near the birthday of Jesus. She said, “This is a gift from God to be
shared, but this is not His greatest gift – that we celebrate tomorrow and
every day – that is Jesus and His great salvation”.
An interesting side bar to this story came later when the
reporter, who dealt with and believed in only facts wanted to move on to other
more important stories, but the memory of the Delgado story would not allow him
to put the story in the dead-story file and move on. A seed had been planted and somehow this
Christmas was different. “His final
comment on this story: “I think I must do some digging and find out, ”Who was
in that manger that day? How did how did He get there? And why did He, the Son of God, choose to come
to earth and walk in my shoes?
Blessings,
Gramps
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