The sign that said it all with the words CHRISTMAS DINNER was the place they were going.

Seeing the smile on Thomas’s face was the only present she wanted and asked for.

Entering the doorway, Lynn knew that this wasn’t the end but the beginning of something that could be special. It was all how she looked at it. Just like Thomas taking something mean-spirited and creating something good out of it.

God is good even when the world out there can be cruel and mean.

The room was full of people. Laughter and conversation filled the air. There wasn’t any shame being here, just the shame Lynn had held in feeling like this was beneath her. She smiled at her kids and then led them to one of the lines. The scent of turkey and gravy and stuffing and candied yams swirled around her.

Lynn imagined heaven smelled a lot like this.

Home.

Under the Tree

It was late afternoon on Monday, the day after Christmas. Sara was at a friend’s house and Thomas was somewhere playing basketball. Lynn waited for both of them to come home. Especially Thomas.

Four things awaited his arrival. Four things she stood looking at as if they were magical illusions that might go away if touched.

The four presents were probably the most extravagantly wrapped gifts she had ever seen. And somehow, in some miraculous way, those four presents all had Thomas’s name handwritten on their stickered tags.

The woman delivering them apologized and said she was doing a favor for the frantic man who was late in handing them in.

“He just had twin boys, so he’s half out of his mind,” the round-faced woman told her with a beaming smile. “I promised I’d come here so you got these presents before it was too late.”

Now the presents sat in their trailer like a lantern on a dark and stormy night.

It didn’t matter that they weren’t under some glorious Christmas tree, just their little donated tree with the paper chains.

The presents seemed to dwarf the tree they sat under, as if the Star of Bethlehem was centered on the ground and pointing upward instead of vice versa. One was solid gold wrapping, another in the image and colors of a candy cane, and another a classic red and green.

The biggest box was a red, black, and white collage.

Something told Lynn that the red, black, and white weren’t just random colors.

At least I hope they aren’t. I really, really hope!

She could hardly wait for Thomas to come home and open them.

“Come on, open them already!”

Thomas shook his head in silence. It was close to eight and Thomas wasn’t budging.

“You’re not going to open them tonight?” Lynn asked.

“Nope.”

He’d gotten home a little after seven, all sweaty and tired from playing ball all afternoon. Thomas had grabbed dinner at Carlos’s house. When she told him to look under the tree, he seemed confused.