‘Twas the night before the night before Christmas and I sat with my knee all bandaged and drugged. There was no tree at the Bothwell’s and grandchildren would come. Much to my dismay my sweetie decided we needed a tree; just a small one would do since she would have to be shopper, erector and decorator. The closest lot had just a few and they were way too large when suddenly she saw at the back of the lot a little guy only five feet high. It truly was one of the ugliest, barest, scrawniest, out of shape thing one would ever see. The salesman was so happy to get rid of it he carried it to her car and sent her on her way with a “Merry Christmas lady. There’s no charge.”
All the way home that little guy kept saying, “Somebody wants me. Somebody wants me.” For the past several weeks at the end of each sales day it had been singing from Annie, “Tomorrow.” When I brushed past it this evening I heard it softly whisper, “Somebody wanted me. Somebody wanted me.” When I paused to look at it I was sure it straightened its trunk so its decorations hung nicely and straight.
A hundred years ago my mother’s mother gave my mother away to a farmer down the road. For years my grandmother would pass the farm without ever stopping to check on her little girl. When my mother died at 97 she would still weep when remembering. Everyone needs to be wanted and better yet needs to be needed. We have a heavenly Father who needs us. He needs and wants us so intensely that He sacrificed His only Son that we might be redeemed. Tonight when going to bed whisper, “Somebody wants me.”
Written by Roger Bothwell on December 30, 2014
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org