Joys to Come
a Christmas short story
Megan Payne
SUNLIGHT BOOKS
Copyright 2011 Megan Payne.
Smashwords Edition.
Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Used with permission.
This digital edition published by Sunlight Books for the glory of God. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, except in fair use, by any means without written consent. All rights reserved.
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Joys to Come
Celandine was about to walk right past the flowers when she first saw them. She had been in her own small, depressed world for quite a while, and she almost didn't notice them. Then a bird flew right past her, and her head followed at a whiplash pace in startlement, and that was when she noticed the roses. There were three of them, snuggled down in a blanket of dry, scrawny thorns on a bush that should have given up weeks ago when the first blizzard blew into the small town of Hope. But there it was sitting, scrawny and sticklike and sprouting three magnificent pink and yellow blooms.
For a moment, Celandine just stopped and stared at them, mouth gaping like a fish's. She had given up weeks ago when the first blizzard hit town and the first employees at her work hit the door in company layoffs. She had shriveled up scrawny and sticklike when the landlord told her she needed to be out by the end of the month. She had gotten thorny and snapped at her mother and sister when they called and sent her one or two overly helpful friends packing because she didn't think she could deal with them. She hadn't bloomed.
The thought drew her up to an emotional halt to match her physical one. She shivered in her coat and glanced down at the packages in her arms that she had been planning to return for some much needed grocery money and a pitiful attempt to scrape together some rent. Christmas. Celandine generally bought her gifts before the Thanksgiving rush, along with the holiday meal, but after she lost her job, she told her mother and sister that she was planning on skipping Christmas this year. Suddenly, that didn't seem like such a good idea.
A cold wind blew past her. Celandine looked around anxiously, uncertain of what she should do. Then, her eye caught again on the roses. Her face that had been scowling softened. Her eyes that had been stung with bitter tears dried and quieted. She leaned over and breathed in the scent of the soft blooms and remembered a certain Rose of Sharon, the Gift and Light of the world—and of Christmas.
"Yes, Lord," she whispered to her risen Savior. Yes, I will trust You. Yes, I will give.
She did not pluck a rose to take with her as others might have done; rather, she fixed the image of the bush into her heart, left them to bless another passerby, and went on with more pluck in her step than she had for a while.
First, she stopped at the grocer's, wished him a merry Christmas, and purchased a few bulk items of food that would last her long enough, however long that would be. She dropped a penny into the Feed the Hungry box and smiled like she meant it. She did.
She stopped next at the post office and shipped her packages economy to her mother, sister, brother-in-law, and two nieces, not forgetting Christmas cards for the very friends she had been so harsh with. She stopped long enough to scribble apologies and love on the envelopes. "Merry Christmas!" she told the postal officer.