The Story of the Christmas Guest
Retold by Helen Steiner Rice
When I was a child, I loved to hear this story my Grandma told each year.
She told it in her native tongue, and I was very, very young…
But yet this story seemed to be filled with wonderment for me.
For in my childish heart there grew the dream that I might see Him, too.
For he might call on me this way so I must watch for him each day…
And that is why “The Christmas Guest” is still the story I love the best –
And I retell it to you now, for I can’t help but feel somehow
That children everywhere should hear the story Grandma told each year…
For Christmas Day is doubly blessed when Jesus is our Christmas Guest!
It happened one day at the year’s white end, two neighbors called on an old-time friend and they found his shop so meager and mean, made gay with a thousand boughs of gree, and Conrad was sitting with face a-shine when he suddenly stopped as he stitched a twine and said, “Old friends, at dawn today, when the cock was crowing the night away, the Lord appeared in a dream to me and said, “I am coming your guest to be”…So I’ve been busy with feet astir, stewing my shop with branches of fir, the table is spread and the kettle is shined and over the rafters the holly is twined, and now I will wait for my Lord to appear and listen closely so I will hear His steps as He nears my humble place and I open the door to look in His face”…
So his friends went home and left Conrad alone, for this was the happiest day he had known, for, long since, his family had passed away and Conrad had spent a sad Christmas Day…But he knew with the Lord as his Christmas guest this Christmas would be the dearest and the best, and he listened with only joy in his heart, and with every sound he would rise with a start and look for the Lord to be standing there in answer to his earnest prayer…So he ran to the window after hearing a sound, but all that he saw on the snow-covered ground was a shabby beggar whose shoes were torn and all of his clothes were ragged and worn…So Conrad was touched and went to the door and he said, “Your feet must be frozen and sore, and I have some shoes in my shop for you and a coat that will keep your warmer, too”…So with grateful heart the man went away, but as Conrad noticed the time of day he wondered what made the dear Lord so late and how much longer he’d have to wait, when he heard a knock and ran to the door, but it was only a stranger once more, a bent old crone with a shawl of black, a bundle of kindling piled on her back. She asked for only a place to rest, but that was reserved for Conrad’s Great Guest…But her voice seemed to plead, “Don’t send me away, let me rest for a while on Christmas Day,” So Conrad brewed her a steaming cup and told her to sit at the table and sup…
But after she left he was filled with dismay for he saw that the hours were passing away and the Lord had not come as He said He would, and Conrad felt sure he had misunderstood…When out of the stillness he heard a cry, “Please help me and tell me where am I.” So again he opened his friendly door and stood disappointed as twice before. It was only a child who had wandered away and was lost from her family on Christmas Day…Again Conrad’s heart was heavy and sad, but he knew he should make this little child glad…So he called her in and wiped her tears and quieted all her childish fears.
Then he led her back to her home once more but as he entered his own darkened door he knew that the Lord was not coming today for the hours of Christmas had passed away…So he went to his room and knelt down to pray and he said, “Dear Lord, why did you delay, what kept you from coming to call on me, for I wanted so much Your face to see”…When soft in the silence a voice he heard “Lift up your head for I came to your lonely door – For I was the beggar with bruised, cold feet, I was the woman you gave to eat, and I was the child on the homeless street…Three times I knocked and three times I came in and each time I found the warmth of a friend…Of all the gifts, love is the best…And I was honored to be your Christmas Guest.”
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