“Yeah. I’m afraid of that.”

Lost Cause

It was Thursday morning. At seven-thirty Lynn had driven to stand outside the warehouse in line with others to get her presents. To get the kids their gifts. She’d been scheduled to show up at ten this morning, but she was supposed to be at an interview around then and was hoping they’d allow her to come in early.

Unfortunately, Lynn discovered that she had to wait until everybody who had the eight and the nine A.M. slots were taken care of. And it turned out, a lot of people were coming to receive gifts.

It was amazing how well organized everything was. The doors to the back of the hardware store opened up promptly at eight. There were several men and women from the Salvation Army inside the building, which had at one time been a warehouse that sold lumber attached to a hardware store in the front. One woman checked IDs while another verified names on a list. They would call out a number once the recipient was identified, then another person would ask what kind of gift wrap the recipient would like. Finally a couple of elderly men handed out what appeared to be small New Testaments to anybody who wanted them.

Except for the two Bible distributors and a few people in the back retrieving the gifts, all the men and women working for the Salvation Army were dressed in uniforms. The women had long skirts, the men pants, all of them wearing dress coats and ties.

After the third time of Lynn’s asking if she could go earlier, the woman checking IDs told her it was fine. Lynn gave them her name and information and then said she was picking up for Thomas and Sara. They called out the numbers and several people walked to the back of the warehouse and began searching through red bags. That was the first time Lynn saw it. The bags.

There must be hundreds of them. Maybe even over a thousand.

They were red garbage bags full of presents. The people quickly brought her one bag that held the presents for Sara. But then she waited. And waited. And kept waiting.

And with each passing moment, she began to feel dread.

Please let them have his gifts, Lord. Please.

They had already received a huge—huge—answer to prayer with the money that she’d received from Daryl. She hadn’t told the kids yet about seeing him but she wanted to. She not only wanted to, she intended to. The money had been a blessing but it hadn’t gone very far. It had covered this month’s rent.

But then there’s January’s rent. And February’s rent. And so on and so on.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry, but you only have one bag.”

Lynn looked around. She couldn’t believe it. A room full of hundreds of bags and they only had one for her? “There’s got to be a mistake.”