Doc's Daily Chuckle 12/30/14
Posted by: pkaine <pkaine@...>
DOC'S DAILY CHUCKLE
Always Clean Chuckles
Laughter is the Best Medicine!
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Again, a chuckle has been replaced by a story that touched
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Doc
Today's Chuckles
1. Where Angels Walk
2. Response to Santa
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Where Angels Walk
by Joan Wester Anderson
Sunny Marie Hackman, a speaker and writer from Lakewood Colorado,
is the kind of person who likes to stay organized. But each year
as Christmas approaches, even she feels overwhelmed by all the
extra activities and items on her to-do list. That's why, a few
Novembers ago, Sunny decided that she could indeed "do it all," if
her family agreed to one condition: "No extra people on Christmas
Eve," she warned her husband and three teenagers. "I just want
Grandma, Grandpa and us, something low-key and relaxed. The family
agreed. Sure, if that's what mom wanted.
Sunny, in addition to hosting several holiday events, planned every
detail of their Christmas Eve feast. The table decorations sparkled,
and aromas from the kitchen drifted through the spotless house.
Sunny even polished the stringed instruments, for theirs was a house
filled with impromptu music appreciation. Then, just as Sunny began
to worry about the time, the phone rang. It was Victor, their college-
age son, who had just arrived on the bus. "Hi, Mom!" he sounded his
usual cheerful self. "Is it okay if I bring home a guy I met on the
way?
Sunny wanted to scream. Hadn't EVERYONE promised to let her have one
evening the way she wanted it? The stranger was probably down and out,
she thought, and would cast a grim shadow on her plans. But it was
Christmas Eve. "Bring him home, Victor," she sighed.
John was in his mid-40's, nondescript and shabby. "Conversation was
somewhat stiff," Sunny recalls, hardly the warm and intimate oasis
she had planned. John was a man of few words when talking of his own
background. But after dinner, he picked up one of their family guitars
and played a few chords. The Hackmans snapped to attention---they
appreciated talent and John obviously had some. Gently, John switched
to the piano, and began a medley of "Amazing Grace" and "Jesus Loves
Me," done with a sweetness she had never experienced. A lump rose in
her throat as her eyes filled with tears. And slowly it dawned on her.
She had done the right thing this Christmas Eve by making room for a
stranger with no place to go. But there had been no love in her heart.
And wasn't love the meaning of Christmas?
She looked up and John's gaze met hers. In his eyes she saw everything
---awareness, tenderness, and yes, forgiveness. He knew her heart,
she realized. But how?
John had finished the hymns, and now he stood and grabbed his jacket.
"That was my gift to you," he told her.
"Wait!" she picked up her camera. "I'd like to take some photos of
you with the kids."
"You can," he told her, smiling, "but they won't turn out."
How did he know? Sunny asked herself again. But she was starting to
understand. "I think we've seen an angel tonight," she told her
husband later that evening, still in awe.
Sunny's husband was as amazed as she. That is, until he went to the
photo shop and picked up the pictures Sunny had taken. They would
have been wonderful mementos of an especially wonderful Christmas
eve. But where a shabby stranger had sat and sung, there was now only
an empty space.
- Copyright 2013 by Joan Wester Anderson (via Christian Voices)
Published by Joan Wester Anderson, P.O. Box 127, Prospect Heights, IL 60070.
For more stories of God's love, check the blog at
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It is never too late to be what you might have been.
- George Eliot
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Response to Santa
Our son and his wife took their two children to the store
to see Santa Claus.
However, when it was time for three-year-old, Maude to go
up and talk to Santa, she became shy and wouldn't go.
Several times, Santa asked her to come to him, but she
refused. Finally, he asked, "Would you like a present?"
"Yes" Maude replied.
"Can you come get it?" Santa asked.
Maude thought about this for a moment, then said, "Can
you throw it?"
- from Da Mouse Tracks
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Please pray for: Leah, Kathy, Erin, Conrad, Patricia, Kelli, Marvin.
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