By Vicki Scott
There is a song that plays in my head occasionally, called “Get Right with The Man” by Van Zant. The lyrics “If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans” sum up my life completely.
I had no idea how blessed I would be when I gave my heart to the Lord. When I surrendered my life to Jesus, I wanted to learn everything I could about Him. As I have shared before, Christmas had no meaning to me until God used my children to lead me to Him. My family did not celebrate Christmas. I remember moving from the country when I was about 11 years old to a neighborhood with other children around our age. Some of these lads heard we were not getting a Christmas tree. The news moved them to go somewhere in the woods, chop down a tree, bring it to our house and offer it to my parents for our Christmas tree. The boys did this on their own initiative, so their own parents did not know what they had done until my parents told them. We were not poor financially, but wow!
Those kids did not see rich or poor— they saw a need. God led these precious young people and I praise God for them. From that day forward, my parents tried to do something in the way of Christmas.
A few years ago, my husband Alan’s best friend (who is an amazing artist) drew most of our Christmas cards. We love them, and I have kept them over the years in a drawer. One of these cards had a picture that I thought would look great on a tee shirt. After I found a way to get the shirt done, the card disappeared. I was devastated. I looked all over for it and asked everyone about it, including our artist friend’s wife. The card was nowhere to be found. All of the artist’s cards were originals with no copies. My mind might have been in denial, because the picture stayed in my mind for a tee shirt.
Last year, I was given a small framed picture that was very similar to the missing picture. Our artist friend drew me another one! I planned to get the picture printed on a tee shirt. I don’t even know how many printers I talked to before I found one that would do the job. This printer’s mother came to George Wallace Senior Center regularly. After some doing, I received several beautifully done tee shirts.
While visiting our family, our daughter-in-law expressed interest in the whole family having matching pajamas. I thought about how the tee shirts would look great with flannel pajama pants, which I found online. I felt I had my Christmas shopping done and I was elated.
There was only one problem: I could not wait until Christmas! I gave them out when we all went to dinner to celebrate my mother’s birthday. But everyone decided to wait until Christmas to wear the tee shirts and flannel pajama pants so we could get a group picture.
Since the birth of our children, we have had Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve and this was the time when we planned to take our group photo. This year, however, our daughter-in-law was rushed to the emergency room on the night of December 23 and tested positive for the flu. Christmas dinner had to be cancelled. She could not help it and she is so precious, so I had no problem cancelling the dinner.
However, our daughter stepped up and told us to go to her house instead. She and her husband cooked both dinner and breakfast for us.
Our daughter was excited to have Christmas dinner at their house. After dinner, we dressed in our matching pajamas in our quarantined pods and took selfies. We shared them with each other with plans to be all together next year. I think I heard God laugh.
Like those neighborhood kids who took the initiative themselves instead of putting someone else on the job, our daughter did not hesitate to keep Christmas special, despite the sickness. I praise God for them. They were all “Right with the Man.”
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!