Two men sat in a small metal building on the parking lot of a supermarket. An electric heater glowed orange and at least took some of the chill out of the December air. They were both members of a local civic organization and they had drawn the short straw to man the annual Christmas tree lot on this Saturday night. Their club raised money each year from the sales of Christmas trees. Business had been steady enough, but the main rush had been the weekend before, so the men had time to sit and talk. They only had about an hour to go, before closing the lot for the evening. For about the first forty-five minutes of that hour, no one had pulled up, and they actually thought about just closing fifteen minutes early, but just before they did, a car slowly pulled up and stopped just outside the door of their make-shift shack.
As they watched, an elderly woman opened the car door. The first thing they saw was a walking cane came protruding from the car. The old lady carefully positioned the cane for safety and finally stepped out.
She was bundled up so much, that they wondered how long it had taken her to get ready to get out and brave the cold. She was dressed for the Christmas season, with a bright red scarf topping everything off. Under the scarf they could see her snow white hair. One of the men told the other one, "why don't you finish up in here, and I'll wait on this lady." He stepped out into the cold and cheerfully greeted the old matron with a loud, "Merry Christmas! May I help you?"
"I hope you can help me find a nice Christmas tree," she replied.
"I'll sure try," he said. He pointed out which section had which type and sizes of trees, secretly hoping she wasn't going to be overly picky.
"I just love Christmas time and always enjoy my live trees. I guess it's okay for some folks, but I just don't like the artificial trees. I know I have to be careful with my money now that I'm a widow, but I think the Lord will forgive me this once a year extravagance."
"I'm sure He will," answered the man.
As they walked around the lot, his hopes of doing this quickly began to die. However, as they walked and talked, the Christmas tree man learned more about her. He learned that her husband of over sixty years had recently passed away and left large medical bills for her to deal with on a tight and fixed income. He also found out about her own health concerns, She told him about her kids and grand kids and what she was going to have for Christmas dinner. She explained that her family all lived a distance away and that she didn't get to see them often, and how she wanted to host them at her modest little house in a nice, festive atmosphere. The way she told him these things weren't done in a complaining way, nor in a way to make people feel sorry for her. She genuinely expressed joy for the season.
Before he realized it, they had drifted into the section where the more expensive trees stood. She came across one of these and got very excited. "Look at this one," she said. "Its branches are perfect and it's the perfect size. And it's only five dollars!" In her excitement, she had misread the price tag. The tree was marked as costing fifty dollars.
Realizing the mistake the old lady had made, the man just said, "yes, it's a great tree for five dollars. I'll load it in the back of your car for you."
The tree now loaded, they stepped into the shack to complete the transaction. He told her, "that will be five dollars, please." He quickly glanced at his partner to indicate he shouldn't say anything.
The lady took four one dollar bills and four quarters out of her purse and paid for the tree. After exchanging "Merry Christmas" with each other, she made her way slowly back to her car and finally drove off. As she was doing this, the man took two twenty dollar bills and a five and put in the cash box. His partner asked, "you just bought that lady's Christmas tree, didn't you?"
"I was hoping you hadn't noticed, but yes I did. She misread the price tag and I didn't have the heart to correct her, so I just let her have it for five dollars."
Matthew 6:3 says, "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing," The generous man never told me this story, his partner did. One of the men was my very own brother. You can decide which one it was.
Merry Christmas!
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