December 7 (part 2)

Keeping Baby Warm
by Lynda H. Laughlin

It was an inexpensive dime-store Nativity set, and he was only three years old. His back was toward me, but I could see that his chubby little hands were busily working on something at the old table.
"What are you doing?" I asked him impatiently, annoyed at him for touching the decorations after he had been told not to.
As I started toward the scene of his latest mischief, he turned toward me with wide blue eyes, a single tear started down his cherubic cheek. Then I saw it. A carefully folded tissue had been tenderly placed over the small ceramic infant.
"Baby Jesus was cold, Mommy," he whispered.
Ten years have passed, and the tiny Nativity has been replaced by a much larger one. But this year, as every year, I found a carefully folded tissue covering the baby Jesus. I think I know who did it, and I hope he never stops.

A Christmas Prayer
by Robert Lewis Stevenson

Loving Father, help us remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the wise men.
Close the door of hate and open the door of love all over the world. Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings, and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.
May the Christmas morning make us happy to be Thy children, and the Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake. Amen.