There once was a young woman who had just moved from one state back home to live with her mother and grandmother after some rough times.
She felt so loved by her family but struggled to adjust to this new town, this new bedroom, even her two cats Gorbachev and Einstein had some trouble too.
After a while she found a job at one of her favorite places in the world- a bookstore. She loved talking to customers, hearing all about her coworkers’ families and favorite books and there was even one who went to the movies every weekend and would tell her how much she loved the movie or if it really wasn’t that much to brag about. She even got along very well with all her bosses, but still felt lost, lonely and frightened and eventually it was Christmas time. The bookstore, Barnes and Noble, was fully of Harry Potter book collections, coloring books, magical sorting hats, stuffed snowy white owls called Hedwig, Harry Potter playing cards, puzzles and even playing cards.
Harry Potter was one of her favorite series. She had read all the books, seen all the movies and so it made work not feel like work at all. But it still wasn’t enough to help completely. Everyone was very nice at work, but she wasn’t friends well enough with them to even go see a movie. She felt like she used to in high school where people either ignored her or made polite conversation but never really connected.
She felt alone in a room full of people still and was afraid of the darkness in her room and going to sleep because of the nightmares she would always seem to have.
One day that December, she decided to buy herself one of the bookstore’s teddy bears whose name Barnsie came written on its right foot. So even though she was grown up, she decided to buy one for herself to cheer herself up and try and make the nighttime better.
She had forgotten how to pray and even didn’t really know how or if she should even talk to God. Everything was so jumbled up inside her head and heart, but she would just go to sleep watching her cats sleep next to her on the bed and Barnsie too. When she finally began coming back around to the idea of talking to God, she still wasn’t sure how or if He even cared enough to listen, so she told Barnsie instead and hoped he would talk to God about all she was feeling and he could talk to God for her about it all.
Things started to finally get better and she started making some friends with a very wonderful group of people who met every night at different places nearby her new home to talk about anything and everything, but there was still a piece missing from her heart so she would hug Barnsie at night and tried talking to both God and Barnsie at the same time. Then God started talking back to her and helped her sleep at night. The nightmares didn’t come as often and she finally started going to church with her grandmother even though it had been almost 20 years since she had stepped foot inside a church. But her grandmother each Sunday had been praying for her to come back to church.
Finally she started making friends at church, slowly at first but then it got better and the new friends she would meet with after work each night would invite her to the most popular diner in town and just hang out. Between all these new things, she felt comfortable enough to talk to God herself and then one day she had a dream about Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia telling her she belonged to him, but in reality it was God using the character of Aslan to tell her she belonged to Him, that He had never forgotten her all those years and that He still loved her despite everything. The following morning after dinner at the kitchen table, she told her mom about the dream and her mom said that that white lion was really the Lion of Judah- another name for God, so she asked God to come back into her life even though she still had doubts- and even told God so herself while her mom and her prayed that night.
You see for 20 years her mom and grandmother had never stopped praying this would happen. That same night she fell asleep hugging Barnsie and finally felt love and peace from God and didn’t have any nightmares that night. One night Gorbachev passed away and because her grandmother knew how much this one cat who had been with her since college meant to her, knew how much animals can truly mean to and help people, she just patiently sat with her and held her as she cried.
Fast forward five years and her beloved grandmother tragically passed away. At the funeral it felt like hundreds of people came out to pay their respects because her grandmother was loved by so many. Even her old best friend from 5th grade came (who she hadn’t seen in years and she felt a piece of her friend’s love filled a part of her she had totally forgotten) and her other best friend from the state she used to live in came, her cousins from New England and although it was very sad, talking about all the wonderful memories of her grandmother helped more than she realized at the time.
But this girl, now a little older was still so heartbroken and in shock that she couldn’t even to tell God how much she missed her grandmother who has always been her best friend. Even the girl’s newest cat Ophelia passed away three days before her grandmother and Einstein had passed away too that very same following Christmas, only two months later. Barnsie still laid silently next to this girl as she slept and she didn’t know what else to do besides hug him and pray.
Eventually her mom sold the house and she and her mom moved down here and began trying to put the pieces of their life back together, but they both always held on to one another and they grew even closer as they learned to adjust with life without her grandmother who although was no longer with them here on earth was in the loving arms of God in heaven.
The next two years this girl worked at different jobs, with many different people but talked to her friend from high school, her friend from Pennsylvania where she had moved back home from and even became very good friend with one very special girl she worked at the pharmacy with. But she never forgot God, her grandmother and Barnsie.
Finally two months ago she found a new church where everyone welcomed her with open arms and open hearts. Actually the very first morning she walked into this new church a very special woman made her feel right at home, was about her grandmother’s age and she told her all about her grandson who was also very special and loved his young daughter so very much, like the way this girl’s mom did and had always had her whole life even when they lived in different states.
Then one day her best friend came to visit and gave her another teddy bear who had mismatched colored ears and paws but she reminded her that just like life, and even this girl, all she has been through and all the mismatched things can be wonderful in their own special way. In fact, that was what made them special too.
The following Sunday, she met the wonderful woman’s grandson and his daughter whose smile and streaks of purple in her hair seemed to bring a special type of joy into her life because this little girl not only was so friendly and funny, but she reminded her of herself when she was a little girl long ago. Her father was so very kind too and made her feel right at home just like his grandmother did and even though it was a short service, this girl came home to her home now with her new cat Goldie who she had adopted from a rescue organization just the year before.
This girl had put Barnsie away because it was too hard to look at him and remember all she had been through, even the good times. But one Sunday before Christmas, she decided to give Barnsie to her new friend’s little girl to help her if she ever felt anything like what the girl had felt, ever had nightmares, or if there was ever a night she wasn’t even sure what to say to God either.
You see, passing along Barnsie helped the now woman’s heart more than however Barnsie may help this little girl if she ever needed him to. This little girl always runs up and gives hugs like she did the very next time they saw each other at church two months ago. It may not be Christmas yet and I don’t know if her father has given Barnsie to her yet or is waiting till Christmas morning, but I hope when he does, he’ll find a way to share this story with his little girl who he loves so very much in a way she can understand. Maybe this true story is written simply enough that he can read her this, but if not he can tell her the story after he takes her to the bookstore and buys her a copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which tells all about Aslan and when the time is right, read that book to her too like he does with other books at night.
This is what I think Christmas should be about. Telling stories (especially the most important one about why we celebrate Christmas), remembering love, and passing that love to others whenever possible.