The Shoe Box (5 page)

H
ere it is, my Lord,” the angel said, kneeling before the throne of God. He held the old, worn shoe box with the words
Running Shoes
printed on it and set it at God's feet.

Jesus took it and set it upon his lap. He put his hand over it and looked out at the gathering of thousands of angels and seraphim and saints. Even they were curious about what was inside. Only he and Timmy knew.

Peter the apostle was there and, bold as always, was the only one who dared ask, “What's in that box, Lord? What has the child given you?”

“Just things,” Jesus said, smiling. He had watched Timmy from the time he was conceived. He had counted every hair upon his head and knew all that was in his heart. And he had waited for the day when the child would come to him with what he had to offer.

Jesus took the top off the shoe box, and all the angels and seraphim and saints leaned forward as he took out one item at a time and laid it tenderly upon his lap.

And what they saw were
just things
— very simple, very ordinary things:

The worn and faded silk edge of his
baby blanket
     A wedding picture of his mother
and father
     His mother's letters with a rubber
band around them

Ten dollars
     His father's note of love and apology
     A math paper with a smiley face and
a note from his teacher
     A pretty star sticker

A movie ticket stub
     Used birthday candles with dried
icing on them
wrapped in pretty wrapping paper and tied with a
bright curled ribbon

The big side of a broken turkey
wishbone

A pretty red maple leaf

An old baseball

And six chocolate chip cookies

There were unseen things, too. Hopes, dreams, prayers, and many worries and fears. All of them were in the box Timmy gave to the Lord.

Jesus put everything back in the shoe box with tender care. He put the red lid back on the box and then rested his hands upon it as he looked at the
multitude before him. “Timmy has given the most precious gift of all: the faith of a child.”

More angels were sent to guard Timmy from that day forth. They never left his side.

They were with Timmy when Mary and David invited his mother to come and live with them. She had a room right across the hall from Timmy. The angels were with him when Mary and David had a baby of their own. They were with him when his father got out of prison in time for his high school graduation. They surrounded Timmy as he grew up, married, and had children of his own.

In fact, angels surrounded him and protected him all the days of his life up until the very moment he was ushered into heaven, straight into the waiting arms of the Lord who loved him.

The Christmas Story

SELECTED FROM MATTHEW 1–2 AND LUKE 1–2
NEW LIVING TRANSLATION

This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a
virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to
think what the angel could mean. “Don't be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby born to you will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What's more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was
barren, but she has already conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”

Mary responded, “I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said
about me come true.” And then the angel left her.

While she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy
Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord's message through his prophet:

“Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a son
,
     and they will call him Immanuel,
which means ‘God is with us.'”

When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded.

A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary's greeting, Elizabeth's child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your
greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy! You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

Mary responded,

“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
How my spirit rejoices in God
     my Savior!

For he took notice of his lowly
servant girl
,
and from now on all generations will
call me blessed.

For the Mighty One is holy,
and he has done great things for me.”

Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home.

At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this
census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. He
traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, his
fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant.

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them.
“Don't be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby
wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven— praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with
     whom God is pleased.”

When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let's go to Bethlehem! Let's see this thing
that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds' story were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for
all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.

About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”

King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem.
He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”

“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:

‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land
     of Judah
,
are not least among the ruling
     of Judah,
for a ruler will come from you
who will be the shepherd for my
     people Israel.' ”

Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from
them the time when the star first appeared.
Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!”

After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house and saw the child with
his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.