The Christmas Gift

A short story for the season

This week, a short story—just in time for Christmas. This one is longer, so grab a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. Enjoy . . . and happily share with friends.

Though the date was December 19, Matt Shannon was hardly in a Christmas mood. Christmas songs—now all day every day on the local Christians station—were playing on his car radio, but as he sat in traffic watching snow shower his car, Matt could only think of the reasons why he could not sing along this Christmas.

For one, Matt’s five-year-old advertising business he launched out of his converted garage was skating on ice much thinner than that which was collecting on the roads. Today he had hoped to turn things around. But a meeting with representatives from Home Again, a restaurant chain of more than 600 establishments, started fast but appeared to fizzle at the close.

“We like your work, Matt,” the vice president in charge of advertising told him. “You seem to understand our values. Your ideas may fit now, or perhaps later on. We’ll let you know.”

“When should I reach out to you?” Matt asked.

“Oh, we’ll get in touch with you. And don’t worry, we will contact you either way.”

Matt knew all too well the, don’t call us, we’ll call you line. If things did not turn around soon, he might be looking for work early next year. But it wasn’t as though he had children to feed. He and Lacie had always desired children, since the day they were married nine years earlier. They prayed, they went to every doctor they could find, and still no children.

For the last three years they had worked with an adoption agency. The wait, they were told, would be at least five years, perhaps more. Maybe seven or eight. As Matt’s mood faltered further, he wondered if he would ever hold a child of his own. And here he sat, two hours from home, with traffic moving at a snail’s pace. The snow fell even harder now. Would they close the roads? With what would normally be a three-hour drive ahead, already his GPS was showing a 32-minute delay. No doubt, it would get worse.

Would he even see Lacie tonight? He tapped his car display to connect and tell Lacie the bad news.

Change in plans

Before he could call Lacie, however, Matt was startled by a banging on the passenger door. The boy couldn’t have been more than 17 or 18; his hair was black, wet and sprinkled by the snow.

“I’ve got to get to the hospital!” He yelled through the closed window.

Matt tried to get a decent look at him through the window.

Was he sick? Wounded? Or was this kid a thief or a carjacker? Matt didn’t have time to think. And he couldn’t move his car in the traffic. The banging on the door was out of desperation. This was going to be interesting.

Matt popped the locks and the kid hopped in.

“Thanks man. I’ve got to get to the hospital. Can you run me by?”

Matt mumbled in the affirmative, asking where he was to go. Matt gave his new rider a once-over. He didn’t look injured. What was up?

“A few miles up ahead. Not far. It’s on the left. You’re not from here?”

“No, Barrier Cliff,” Matt responded, trying to focus on this new situation.

“You’re a long way from home, man. You gonna try to beat the storm?”

“I might try . . .” but Matt was cut off by the Chatty Cathy in his passenger’s seat.

“You’ll need this, that’s for sure,” The kid was tapping Matt’s Bible, which he had pulled off of the passenger’s seat when he jumped in.

Matt smiled at the attempt at humor. He decided he could be friendly, even with all that was on his mind. The kid was talkative and seemed honest enough.

Matt’s new friend wasn’t afraid to ask questions. “Have you read it all the way through?”

Matt nodded a yes. What was this guy’s story?

“I’ve read it through too,” the kid told him. “Just gave my life to the Lord three months ago. And I’ve read like the whole Bible already. Wild what happens when you really need the Lord, isn’t it?”

Great, Matt thought. My world is crashing, and I’ve got Mr. “Jesus is my new best friend” for the next half hour.

Matt tried to engage, but finding words wasn’t coming easily. Sure, God was apparently doing something for this guy, but . . .

Everyone has a story . . .

Passenger #1 interrupted his thoughts. “Yeah, it’s been a tough time,” he said as if Matt had asked. “But God pulled me through.” He was oblivious to Matt’s lack of interest in a conversation.

“My girlfriend had a baby,” he continued. “That’s why I’ve got to hoof it to the hospital. Couldn’t catch a ride, so I started walking. To see my boy. He was just born an hour ago. He came so fast, and my cell was off at work. He’s two weeks early.”

He kept talking; all Matt could do was listen. “I won’t see him long, though. We decided to place him with an adoptive family.”

“She—my girlfriend is Maddie—told me I can’t say like, ‘we put him up for adoption’ cause we’re placing him. Our choice. She’s doing the right thing though, I know. We’re just in high school. I want to marry her, but we need to think about this baby right now. He needs a family who can give him everything we can’t yet. We will one day, I know. But not yet. You think it’s okay, don’t you?” He stopped abruptly, waiting for an answer.

“You two made a wise choice. You tell your girlfriend she’s a brave girl,” Matt offered.

The kid was ready to talk again. “She is,” he said quickly. “She picked the adoption agency, even made the phone call. She liked the people there. She even asked the adoption people to pick the family. Then when they came to—like—talk to us about all of it, they talked about the Lord and He just started changing my life.”

The kid was quiet for a moment, then kept going. “Funny, huh? It’s like God reached down and snagged me when I wasn’t even expecting it.”

Hilarious, Matt thought. For a moment, he said nothing. Matt wanted some—any—encouragement right now. But instead, it was apparently his job to lift up this high school boy.

But then, Matt found his thinking shifting.

C’mon Matt. Complain about your life later. Focus on this guy—not exactly an easy day for him, either. And he’s handling it a lot better than you.

Matt took a breath and spoke. “God has a way of stepping into our situations in unlikely ways—and you are a great example of trusting him. I’m impressed. Good on you.”

The two began to talk as traffic moved like a glacier. The guy’s name was Josh. He loved to talk. Matt warmed up to him.

Finding an answer

The kid’s next question caught Matt off guard. “You got any kids?”

“Uhhhh. No.” This wasn’t a subject Matt wanted to touch.

“Why not?” To go with “talkative” as a character trait for Josh, Matt noted, “nosy.”

“It’s not that we don’t want kids,” Matt said, trying to maintain composure. “It’s just that . . .” Matt’s voice trailed off. What could he say to a high school boy? “It’s just that it hasn’t worked out.” Josh was silent, for a change. For a few moments, nothing was said.

Of course, it was Josh who broke the silence, ramping things up with more small talk. As the traffic broke loose and began to move, they talked about sports, and a shared love of baseball.

Soon, the hospital came into view. There, Josh directed Matt into the parking lot. “That’s where I can go in. Hey, will you come in with me and see my boy?”

Josh hesitated for a split second. “My parents,” he said slowly. “They uh, they didn’t want—they couldn’t, you know—make it.”

Matt understood. Even if the day wasn’t what he expected, maybe he could help his surprise hitchhiker. The snow was still coming down; Matt would probably need a hotel for the night anyway. He would call Lacie and let her know he would be home as soon as the roads cleared in the morning.

“It would be an honor,” Matt replied. “Let me give my wife a call.” He dropped off Josh and checked the signs for Labor & Delivery. He would find his way there in a little while.

Matt checked in with Lacie and shared his story of a strange finish to a frustrating day. Lacie listened closely, then had a question.

“Have they already picked an agency, and a family?” she asked.

Yes, Matt told her, everything was settled.

A thought . . .

Lacie wasn’t finished.

“Which agency?”

“I don’t know,” Matt said. “I didn’t ask. Does it matter?”

“No,” Lacie said. “But what if God wants us to . . . well, if they wanted to pick a couple . . .” Her voice sounded hopeful.

“They’ve already worked it out,” Matt told her softly. “I’d better not get into our situation with them. It just wouldn’t be right.”

“I know, I know,” Lacie said, her voice failing to mask her pain. “You’re right. We’ve just waited so long . . . .”

Their conversation ended and Matt went back inside. After a few wrong turns in the halls of the hospital, he finally caught up with Josh. There he was, standing outside the window, gazing quietly at a tiny bundle on the other side of the glass, wrapped in a blue blanket. Matt walked up beside him and admired the little boy.

Both men, caught up in private thoughts, watched silently for a moment. This time, it was Matt who spoke first. “He’s a beautiful baby.” And he was. Josh responded with a nod.

“And look at his hand. Isn’t it cool?” Josh pointed at the infant’s left hand, which had slipped out of the blanket. And there, between the thumb and the forefinger, Matt saw an unmistakable birthmark. Immediately, he understood what Josh was talking about.

“The nurse told me about it, and when I saw it, I knew she was right,” Josh said. “It looks just like . . .” he didn’t get a chance to finish before Matt jumped in.

“A baseball,” Matt said with a chuckle. “You can almost see the seams in that little hand. It’s amazing.”

“He’s going to be a ballplayer I guess,” Josh said quietly.

“That must be his pitching hand,” Matt said with a smile.

Josh grew silent again. A minute, maybe two, passed. “I’ll be back in a little while,” Josh explained. “Will you stay?”

Matt said he would, and Josh was gone in a hurry.

A gift offered

Matt sat in the waiting area mindlessly scrolling on his phone while he waited. He glanced at a clock on the wall. After a half hour passed, Josh was back, walking straight up to Matt and giving him a hopeful, yet piercing stare.

“You said you didn’t have any kids, right?”

Matt immediately knew where this was going.

“And since it hasn’t worked out for you, me and Maddie—that’s my girlfriend—we want you to have this baby.”

Matt simply stared back, not knowing what to say.

“God does things for a reason doesn’t He? And He put me in your car. We think it’s what we’re supposed to do.”

Matt looked in Josh’s eyes and saw nothing but honesty and conviction. A surge of elation quickened his pulse. He thought of Lacie, and all the years of waiting. He thought of calling his attorney and getting the process moving immediately, before any minds changed.

Matt could drive home through the snow, pick up Lacie and be back by mid-morning. As soon as the adrenaline began to flow however, Matt was struck with a sense that he needed to slow the pace.

“We can’t do that,” he said without conviction. “You two made your plans already. Someone is probably waiting by the phone to hear about your baby boy.”

“We can change it,” Josh said. “They said whoever got picked wouldn’t even know until we sign everything—probably next week. And the adoption people said we could change our minds.

That’s what we’re gonna do. It’s okay.”

Matt thought about Lacie and the long wait they had endured together. And now, it could be over. “Give me a few minutes, okay?”

A gift given

Josh had no problem with that, and Matt called Lacie. Something kept gnawing at him as he pulled his phone from his pocket, but Matt dismissed any negative thoughts. God had worked the whole thing out, hadn’t He?

During the call with Lacie however, the uncomfortable feeling returned. Their miracle would be another’s loss. They both knew it. Lacie voiced what they were both thinking. “Some couple out there is waiting. And even if they never know, I can’t imagine how I would feel if someone else came in at the last minute. He’s their child. Not ours.”

Tears flowed as they came to their decision. Matt had to tell Josh.

Matt found him still in the waiting room, with a smile on his face. It was difficult for Matt to look Josh in the eye, but finally, he did.

“We just can’t do it,” Matt said, dropping the truth like a hammer. “Believe me; we want to with all of our hearts. We really do. But if we say yes, another couple is going to be disappointed, even if they don’t realize it.”

Matt continued as the emotions began to well up in his voice. “Your offer . . .” Matt paused and tried to compose himself. “It was the greatest Christmas present we could hope for.” A tear formed at the corner of Matt’s right eye. He quickly wiped it away.

“But if my faith is real, I can’t do this to someone else.” Matt took a deep breath before he continued. “But you—or I guess the agency—has already chosen the couple they believe God has for your boy. We’d better not change things at this point. Our day will come.”

Josh seemed to understand. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “They said we did things differently by letting them choose. But we trusted them. I think we meet the family in a week or so—it’s open adoption so we’ll see our boy. They told us the new mom and dad are great people.”

“I’m sure they are,” Matt said. “And when you meet them, you tell them they are a special couple and that me and Lacie—that’s my wife—are praying for them. And we will.”

With that, Matt thanked Josh again and turned toward the elevator. He knew he had to move quickly. He wouldn’t hold up much longer. Matt shuffled into the parking lot with his head down, got in his car and found a hotel a block away. That night, he hardly slept.

The next morning the roads cleared, and Matt quietly drove home to Barrier Cliff. Though hardly jovial, he still felt a small sense of joy as he turned into his neighborhood. The day before, he spent too much time dwelling on the missing pieces of his life. Today, he was reminded, he and Lacie gave the gift of a son to a couple they would never know.

Though they would continue to wait for a child, he would remember this Christmas for a long time. A reminder of what Christmas is all about, Matt thought.

A reminder of the gift given

The few remaining days before Christmas passed without Matt and Lacie talking much more about Josh or the baby. There were things to do, and they were heading to Lacie’s parents this year—tomorrow—on Christmas Eve.

Going through the motions, Matt pulled out his phone and checked his email. Deleting a dozen promotional offers and wondering how he got on so many email lists, Matt’s eyes did a double take when he saw correspondence from the VP of Home Again Restaurants.

The first sentence was all he needed to see: “Congratulations, Josh. We look forward to partnering with you as we roll out our new advertising campaign.” From there, a quick note to say they were upping their advertising buy a whopping 45% over their original estimate. “I’ll be in touch the first week of January—but wanted you to know now so you can start planning.”

Matt pumped his arm as he bounced into the kitchen where Lacie was cooking the French toast casserole they would take to her parents’ home. “Yessssss!” He yelled as Lacie tried to figure out what was going on. “Christmas is here!”

“So I heard!” Lacie said, not understanding Matt’s excitement.

But before Matt could say anything more, a call lit up his screen. The number was familiar, and the city location caused his heart to skip a beat.

Matt swiped to answer, wondering if . . .

“Matt?”

“Yes,” he replied as he attempted to catch his breath.

“This Paul Jensen from Hope Adoptions. I hope you and Lacie are together right now, put me on speaker if you can.”

Matt punched the screen. Lacie leaned in.

Paul’s voice filled the room. “Are you available to join us tomorrow? As we told you, things would move in a hurry once everything was finalized. And we have a present for you. A boy, born at 6 pounds, 13 ounces. He is ready for you.”

Matt was nearly speechless, trying valiantly to put words together. “Yes . . . Sure—We . . .”

“Well, he was born last week—the 19th—and we were able to move things forward more quickly than we thought,” Paul added.

Matt and Lacie were both about to hyperventilate.

Paul continued. “He’s a beautiful boy. And I remember from the bio you gave us that you said something about being a baseball fan. You won’t believe this baby’s birthmark . . . .”

Kirk’s Quick Notes . . .

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