The Angel's Gift

It was Christmas Eve and the Lord looked down from above at all his children.
It had been thousands of years since the birth of his son and he turned to his
youngest angel and said:

"Go down to earth and bring back to me the one thing that represents
everything good that has been done in the name of this day".

The angel spread his wings and descended from heaven to the world of man. As
he soared above earth, he heard the sound of church bells, their tone was so
beautiful it reminded him of the voice of God. Enchanted by the magic of what
he heard, the angel found himself listening to a song of silent night. He
flew through the night, he was delighted to hear these sounds everywhere, from
the largest cities to the smallest villages. He heard melodies from massive
orchestras and in the voices of single soldiers alone at their post. And any
place where he heard these songs, he found hope in the hearts of men.
Grasping a song out of the air, he held it in his hand (angels are able to do
this) and he thought maybe, these songs could be the one thing that best
represented Christmas. They seemed to give voice to man’s greatest joys as
well as hope to those deepest in despair.

Then his heart told him that this music alone was not enough, there had to be
more. He continued his flight until he suddenly felt the touch of a father’s
prayer on its way to heaven. He saw a man who was praying for his child whom
he had not heard from for a long time and who would not be home for Christmas.
Seizing upon the prayer, the angel followed it until it reached the lost
child.

She was standing on a corner, in a quiet snowfall, looking small in a large
city. Across from her was an old city bar, the kind that only the lost seemed
to know how to find. The bartender in this bar had been working in there
longer than anyone could remember. He believed in nothing except his bar and
the cash register. He never married, and had never been seen out from behind
the counter. He was there when the patrons arrived and he was there when they
left. For them he provided a safe, unchanging world.

Suddenly, the door open to the bar and into its world walked a small child.
The bartender could not remember the last time a child had been in this place,
then the child asked him if he knew that there was a girl outside their door
who could not get home. Glancing out the window, he saw the girl standing on
the corner. Turning back to the small child, he asked how the child knew
this, the child replied: "That on this night of all nights, if one could be
home, they’d be already there."

The bartender reflected on what the child had said. He slowly went over to
the cash register and removed most of the money and came out from the behind
the bar and followed the small child across the street to the girl. Everyone
in the bar watched as he spoke to the girl, after a few moments he called over
a cab and put the girl inside and told the driver JFK airport. The cab drove
away and he looked for the small child, but the child was gone. Stranger
still, even though his tracks leading from the bar were still clearly marked
in the snow, the child’s were nowhere to be found.

Returning back inside, he asked if anyone had seen where the child had gone,
but no one had for they had been watching the departing cab. And then, some
would later say that the most miraculous thing of all happened, when for the
rest of the night, no one paid for a drink.

Later that night, the angel returned back to heaven and placed in the Lord’s
hand, "The wish of a soul for the happiness of another".
And as the heavenly host looked on, the Lord smiled.


Then all at once inside that night
The bartender saw it all so clear
The answer that he sought so long
Had always been so near

It’s every gift that someone gives
Expecting nothing back
It’s every kindness that we do
Each simple little act

If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last

By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who need help
You need only just ask

And so it’s good that we remember
Just as soon as we’ve discovered
That the things we do in life
Will always end up touching others

And for the angel who returned that night to the Lord in the sky, he flew over
the land with his gift for his Lord, there in his hand.

It was the glow of a light
It was the heart of a song
It was the tear of a child
Where they never belonged
It was the wish of a soul
Hoping that we’ll all understand
Every dream we have is in our hands


And so friends, my story is over, and I swear every word is true, I know you
may be puzzled and your mind tells you to doubt me and that my story can’t be
true. "But your heart tells you, it might be".

Then I will ask, did it entertain you, and you will admit it had charm, and
perhaps you have learned something, Or at worst, I’ve done you no harm.
Now as you are safe and warm in your home, recalling all I have told you, for
the first time since your childhood, I believe that tonight you will dream a
Christmas dream.