Andy was getting cold sitting out in his back yard in the
snow. Andy didn't wear boots; he didn't like them and
anyway he didn't own any. The thin sneakers he wore had
a few holes in them and they did a poor job of keeping out
the cold. Andy had been in his backyard for about an
hour already. And, try as he might, he could not come up
with an idea for his mother's Christmas gift. He shook his
head as he thought, "This is useless, even if I do come up
with an idea, I don't have any money to spend."
Ever since his father had passed away three years ago,
the family of five had struggled. It wasn't because his
mother didn't care, or try, there just never seemed to be
enough. She worked nights at the hospital, but the small
wage that she was earning could only be stretched so far.
What the family lacked in money and material things,
they more than made up for in love and family unity. Andy, the only boy in the family,
had three sisters, two older and one younger. His older sisters ran the household in
their mother's absence. All three of his sisters had already made beautiful
gifts for their mother. Some how it just wasn't fair.
Here it was Christmas Eve already, and he had nothing.
Wiping a tear from his eye, Andy kicked the snow and started to walk down
to the street where the shops and stores were. It wasn't easy being six
without a father, especially when he needed a man to talk to.
Andy walked from shop to shop, looking into each decorated window.
Everything seemed so beautiful and so out of reach. It was
starting to get dark and Andy reluctantly turned to walk home when suddenly
his eyes caught the glimmer of the setting sun's rays reflecting off of
something along the curb.
He reached down and discovered a shiny dime.
Never before has anyone felt so wealthy as Andy felt at that moment.
As he held his new found treasure, a warmth spread
throughout his entire body and he walked into the first store he saw.
His excitement quickly turned cold when salesperson after salesperson told
him that he could not buy anything with only a dime.
He saw a flower shop and went inside to wait in line.
When the shop owner asked if he could help him, Andy presented the dime
and asked if he could buy one flower for his mother's Christmas gift.
The shop owner looked at Andy and his ten cent offering. Then he put his
hand on Andy's shoulder and said to him, "You just wait here and I'll see
what I can do for you." As Andy waited, he looked
at the beautiful flowers and even though he was a boy, he could see why
mothers and girls liked flowers. The sound of the door closing as the last
customer left, jolted Andy back to reality. All alone in the shop, Andy began
to feel alone and afraid. Suddenly the shop owner came out and moved to the counter.
There, before Andy's eyes, lay twelve long stem, red roses, with leaves of
green and tiny white flowers all tied together with a big silver bow.
Andy's heart sank as the owner picked them up and placed them gently into
a long white box. "That will be ten cents young man." The shop owner said
reaching out his hand for the dime. Slowly, Andy moved his hand to give
the man his dime. Could this be true? No one else would give him a thing
for his dime! Sensing the boy's reluctance, the shop owner added, "I
just happened to have some roses on sale for ten cents a dozen.
Would you like them?" This time Andy did not hesitate, and when the man
placed the long box into his hands, he knew it was true. Walking out the
door that the owner was holding for Andy, he heard the shop keeper say,
"Merry Christmas, son."
As he returned inside, the shop keepers wife walked out. "Who were you
talking to back there and where are the roses you were fixing?"
Staring out the window, and blinking the tears from his own eyes,
he replied, "A strange thing happened to me this morning.
While I was setting up things to open the shop, I thought I heard a voice
telling me to set aside a dozen of my best roses for a special gift.
I wasn't sure at the time whether I had lost my mind or what, but I set
them aside anyway. Then just a few minutes ago, a little boy came into the
shop and wanted to buy a flower for his mother with one small dime.
When I looked at him, I saw myself, many years ago. I too was a poor boy
with nothing to buy my mother a Christmas gift. A bearded man, whom I never
knew, stopped me on the street and told me that he wanted to give me ten
dollars. When I saw that little boy tonight, I knew who that voice was,
and I put together a dozen of my very best roses."
The shop owner and his wife hugged each other tightly, and as they stepped
out into the bitter cold air, they somehow didn't feel cold at all.
|
