It’s been a busy month, and it will continue to be busy through Christmas, so I really haven’t been in the Christmas spirit this year. Years ago, I bought a beginner drum set and thought I would learn how to play them. I puttered around with them and then decided I would pick them up again when I had more time, like when I retired. Then I retired and still found plenty to do without picking the drums back up. Then I decided I wasn’t too fond of being retired. An opportunity came along, and I took it, so I’m working again.
So, the drums were taking up a lot of space, and I finally admitted to myself that I wasn’t ever going to pick them up again. What do you do with barely used drums? Usually, we donate junk we don’t want to Goodwill or whoever will take it. I don’t like the thought of selling things to strangers who will come to my house, but for some reason, I put my drums on Facebook Marketplace to see what would happen.
I log on the next morning, and I have eleven messages about the drums. One person offered me half what I was asking. One person wanted me to split up the set. One person wanted to make an appointment to come and look at them. Most of the others were asking if they were still available. One lady said she wanted to buy them for her husband for Christmas, but she didn’t sound very committed. I was starting to kick myself for getting into this mess. But the other one said he wanted to get them today. I contacted him back, and he was here less than two hours later with cash in hand. His name was David. Remember that name.
So David gets here, and I open the garage door. The drums are sitting right in the garage, opening next to the door. He gets out of his van, and his eyes light up. He says: “These are perfect.” David is a grandfather, and I know instantly that nothing David could ever buy for himself would make him as happy as he seems to be. He explained that he plays the guitar and his 7-year old grandson plays the drums, which are just some plastic buckets. These drums will be given to his grandson for Christmas, and he will not be playing buckets anymore. As he describes his grandson to me, his joy is bubbling over, and in my mind’s eye, I can see this boy and his grandfather jamming together, and suddenly it hits me – Christmas, which I am too busy for this year, has shown up. It was a human example that reminded me of a gift from our heavenly father to all of humanity – a gift born of love so deep we can never fully understand it. I tried to explain to him how happy I was that his grandson was getting these drums, but I couldn’t convey the message accurately. If our conversation had gone on much longer, these two old guys who had just met would have been hugging each other.
Sitting here hours later, I still feel the joy. I’m wondering if David was even real and if he was real, was he an angel. The drums are really gone, and the money is really here, so maybe I’m just being silly. Regardless, whether he knew it or not, he was a messenger, and I got the message. And it was only possible because of a child in the line of David. I hope that whatever else you’re going through right now, Christmas will find you this week.
“Until one feels the spirit of Christmas, there is no Christmas. All else is outward display–so much tinsel and decorations. For it isn’t the holly, it isn’t the snow. It isn’t the tree not the firelight’s glow. It’s the warmth that comes to the hearts of men when the Christmas spirit returns again.” ~ Author Unknown