Bobby
was getting cold sitting out in his back
yard in the snow. Bobby 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. Bobby 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. Bobby had two older and
one younger sister, who ran the household in
their mother's absence. All three of his
sisters had already made beautiful gifts for
their mother. Somehow it just wasn't fair.
Here it was Christmas Eve already, and he
had nothing. Wiping a tear from his eye,
Bobby 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. Bobby 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 Bobby 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
Bobby felt at that moment. As he held his
newfound treasure, warmth spread throughout
his entire body and he walked into the first
store he saw. His excitement quickly turned
cold when the salesperson told him that he
couldn't 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, Bobby presented the dime and asked
if he could buy one flower for his mother's
Christmas gift. The shop owner looked at
Bobby and his ten-cent offering. Then he put
his hand on Bobby's shoulder and said to
him, "You just wait here and I'll see
what I can do for you."
As
Bobby 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 Bobby back to
reality. All alone in the shop, Bobby began
to feel alone and afraid. Suddenly the shop
owner came out and moved to the counter.
There, before Bobby's eyes, twelve long
stem, red roses, with leaves of green and
tiny white flowers all tied together with a
big silver bow. Bobby'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, Bobby 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 Bobby 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 Bobby, he heard
the shop keeper say, "Merry Christmas,
son." As he returned inside, the
shopkeeper's 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.
May this story
instill the
spirit of
