Snow fell on the ground promising a white Christmas. The lights, sounds and smells of Christmas enveloped all of our senses. All of us kids were filled with joy and wonder. This was going to be our best Christmas ever!Meanwhile, workers were barred from entering the service center of the local gas company where my dad worked. The labor union had gone on a strike. They were using the cold weather as a bargaining chip to leverage higher wages and benefits. However, the company refused to negotiate. Instead, it tried to reason with the workers to think of the senior citizens and small children who needed gas for cooking and heating.
The strike went on past one paycheck and then another. Dad had no money to pay our bills, much less buy gifts. As kids, we didn't understand why our parents acted so strangely. Eventually, mom, eyes filled with tears, pulled me aside and tried to explain what was going on. “Your dad has had been hurt trying to break through the strikers' line. You know your dad. He could not stand the idea of the elderly not having heat for Christmas nor food for us,” she said. “There won't be any Christmas this year, Jimmy.”
Dad was continuing to go to work. He broke through the lines. He worked without a paycheck for awhile. However, he helped provide the gas service to those who needed it during the winter storm. It was a sacrifice of love.
It was hard for me as an ten year old kid to understand. Yet, I knew things were bad. Then an idea came to mind. It would be a sacrifice of love, too. We would wrap our favorite toys and make them into gifts for one another. I told the idea to my brothers and we did it. Finally we each had gifts to unwrap on Christmas!
Jesus broke through the lines of Satan to provide us what we needed. The deathly chill of sin had settled into the lives of everyone on earth. Yet, we know the Father. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” He continued to work. It was a sacrifice of love.
The apostle Paul explained, saying, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8). May we choose to break Satan's lines to help others. It will be a sacrifice of love. It just might make it your best Christmas ever!
By Jim Morris
Activity For The Day - Find Me
