29. Together

My 31 Free Writes for October play out like a serial love story in an old time magazine. It’s the saga of a young woman and how God leads her to the love of her life. Each day offers new developments in a romance only the Lord could write.

********

Come around our home in August and you may hear the strains of Christmas music playing in our home. We love Christmas and all that goes with it. Many wonderful family memories weave through this festive time of year. Our first Christmas together was filled with numerous celebrations with my family and several church families. Shortly after that we moved to St. Louis, MO.

The New Year presented us with many challenges financially. We lived with another couple for a time until we purchased a 14 x 50 mobile home with the help of a down payment from my parents. I found a full time job while David began seminary training. Looking back I can confidently say we were poor. But when you’re in it, it doesn’t seem so bad. We simply had a tight budget. I made approximately $650.00 a month. We learned to live with it and to be content with the limits. Limited money makes life simple.

Routine created a sense of comfort and home. Thank goodness for youthful idealism. Mid-summer I found that I was expecting our first child. We shifted our focus and made plans for me to quit my job so I could be a stay at home mom. There was a steady rhythm to life. Until…..

I wasn’t sure what I was looking at when I checked our mail one late autumn day. A friendly letter from the bank? No. Wait…. IMPOSSIBLE! How could we be overdrawn?! And the kicker was that it was our tithe check that bounced. ARGH! I frantically pulled out our checkbook, slowly going over our recent payments and checking them with a calculator. My stomach lurched when I found the $100.00 mistake. This was HUGE. It was my fault. There was nothing to be done about it but to contact our church and explain the mistake and make arrangements to make it up. In the meantime, we had to be creative with our money. Looking for loose change was serious work now.

I berated myself every time I had to change my usual course of action as a result of my stupidity. David was much more gracious and kept reminding me that he had forgiven me and wasn’t angry with me. I needed to let it go. We would recover from this. I was so grateful for his attitude, but with Christmas coming soon, I knew that my mistake had cost us our usual celebration. Another reason to beat myself up.

We played Christmas music with the cassette tapes and albums we already had. One string of lights was hung up on the wall because we had no money for a Christmas tree. The five “Our First Christmas” ornaments we got as wedding gifts dangled from the curtain rod in the living room. My beloved was satisfied with the results, but I sulked even more.

A few days before Christmas we were grocery shopping and saw a sign at a tree lot for $5.00 Christmas Trees. We counted up our change and decided to check out the possibility. Yep. They looked like $5.00 Charlie Brown Christmas trees, alright. Pathetic. But it was a tree that would fill an empty spot in our trailer.

When we got it set up it looked even more pathetic because you could see right through the branches to the end of the house. Our one string of lights and five ornaments with a topper of Garfield the cat on skies didn’t quite do it for me. Poor David, my eternal optimist did his best to brighten my somber mood. I hated the fact that I was so bothered by the situation. That’s not what Christmas is about and I knew it.

After the Christmas Eve service we came home and sat in front of the tree, its lights the only illumination in the room. We cuddled on the sofa and talked about the changes of the past year and the changes to come. We apologized to each other for not being able to exchange gifts this year. We read the Christmas story from Luke 2 and went to bed.

Morning came and I, as usual, was second to get out of bed. I’d like to think it was because I was pregnant, but that wouldn’t be the truth. David had been stirring around, making coffee and getting stuff for breakfast ready when I came out to greet him with a hug and a “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas!” he said. Why don’t you go and sit on the sofa while I get breakfast ready. Music is playing and you can enjoy the tree.”

“Thanks, sweetheart. I’ll do that.” Enjoy the tree….ha! I sat down with my coffee and looked at everything BUT the tree this Christmas morning. No gifts to give. Dumb ole’ tree sporting Garfield on top. Brother!

David sat down next to me, grinning that infernal grin. “Well? What do you think?"

“What do I think about what?”

“The tree? Didn’t you look at it?” He got up and pointed to something dangling on a fragile branch. I got up to get a closer look and realized that it was a picture of us sitting in a restaurant holding hands. And there were more. David had decorated our tree with our favorite photos of the two of us.

Sidling up behind me David whispered in my ear, “This is my gift. I am so grateful for you and I don’t want you keep coming down on yourself. You are my gift and I just wanted you to know how much I love you.”

“I love you, too!”

What do you do when Grace walks through the door and gives you a hug? If you’re smart, you hold tight and don’t let go.
​
Eccl 4:9-10 Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. 10 For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

---