Once upon a time in a tiny town down by the ocean, there lived a humble little girl. She wasn't rich and she wasn't famous, but she was very happy. She would work hard at her chores to help her family buy enough food to feed all the hungry mouths. And she played quietly on the sandy shores as the other people of the town were elbowing each other to get ahead.
It made her sad that the busy people of the town were so mean to each other. After all, she wanted them to enjoy the fresh ocean air, the salty waves and the grandness of what Mother Nature had given them all to live in.
The townspeople, in their hurries, didn't notice the wonderful simple things that made her life so full of love. All they wanted was to make money and they never focused on the natural wonders around them.
One chilly winter day when all the town was preparing for Christmas, the little girl stopped to look at the colorful lights and the pretty holiday decorations; and the joy of Christmas filled her heart. It was such a beautiful season, she didn't understand why all the people weren't smiling and being filled with the spirit of giving and sharing.
As she sat by the postmaster's door happily munching the Christmas cookies her mother had baked that morning, she could see the people shoving each other for a place in line to mail their Christmas packages. Even though Christmas was only a few days away, the people were yelling at the poor old bespectacled postmaster for being too slow. The postmaster had such a small shop and the nasty people put off their mailing far too long. But they blamed him, cursing him and each other so much that it brought tears to the little girl's bright blue eyes.
One sorrowful tear rolled off her rosy cheeks and dropped onto her cookie, and suddenly a giant Christmas smile came across her angelic little face.
As she stood in line looking up at the cruel people with frowns on their twisted faces, she continued to light up a cheerful broad smile. But it was the only smile in the room. She beamed a joyous holiday glow as those around her grew meaner and uglier.
Slowly, the line of selfish mailers inched closer to the tired old postmaster. She was close enough now to see beads of sweat on his furrowed brow from all his honest hard work. He had a kind face, she could see, gently wrinkled from years of smiles and good thoughts. Yet the impatient people still cursed his speed. Poor old man, she thought. Such a decent fellow being treated so badly.
Finally, after being jostled for what seemed like forever, the tiny figure in torn clothes with a small box in her bundled hands made it to the edge of the postmaster's counter.
All the kindly old man could see when he looked down through his sweat-smeared glasses was the tattered hat atop sparkling blue eyes and a giant Christmas smile. It warmed the aged clerk's heart to see this bright little holiday flower before him. Soon he forgot about the curses and the madness of the greedy crowd in his shop.
And then, just as the jeers were rising to a deafening crescendo of selfishness, two tiny hands rose slowly but with purpose from below the smiling face and tattered hat with a box that she placed in front of the kind old postmaster.
"Merry Christmas", whispered the little girl. "These cookies are for you."
And the old postmaster smiled back and had a very Merry Christmas!
Be kind to your family and friends. Pray for your enemies. We celebrate that Jesus was born to save our souls. Mathew 1:23.