I want to begin by saying that I hope that you and yours had a wonderful Christmas and that I am forever grateful and overwhelmed by the gift that was given so many years ago, the love of a God who would give His only Son, so that we might be saved.
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins. Matthew 1:21
This is a story of an unexpected Christmas gift, at a time that would be the most difficult Christmas ever.
For as long as I can remember, our family has had Christmas traditions that we have observed each year. When I say- “our family,” I am referring to Mom, Dad, Lee (my older brother,) Luke (my younger brother,) and me. We moved a lot and so many years, we were not able to be with our extended family and so the five of us had our own way to observe Christmas and Christmas Eve.
My parents did not teach us to believe in Santa, but instead as part of our Christmas celebrations, they would tell us the story of how St. Nick made and brought gifts to poor children and so for us that part of Christmas was more of a lesson on doing for others and being kind and helping the poor. But each Christmas Eve, Mom would make homemade hot chocolate and some special treat(s) and we would sit in the living room in candlelight and sing Christmas carols and then Dad would read from the Bible the story of Jesus.
Christmas 2010
He would begin with the angel coming to Mary and end with Mary and Joseph taking Jesus and fleeing into Egypt. I can remember hearing him read and picture him there with his Bible in the candlelight.
These are such sweet memories and over time as our family grew, the traditions continued as the rooms grew larger and the sofas, chairs, and floor were filled with their children, son and daughter in laws, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Overtime, we needed to leave the lights on as Dad’s eyes became older but everything else was the same until three years ago when he was struggling with reading and by this time had been through some health issues and was having a hard time reading and said that someone else would need to finish.
It was that year that I finished reading for my dad and the past two years, I continued to be the reader. As I have mentioned previously, we lost Dad in October, almost exactly two months before Christmas. Dad wasn’t the only one to go on this year, but also my brother Luke’s sweet wife Kathleen. As we prepared for Christmas this year, it was bittersweet and emotional. I was surprised but also excited when Luke texted me just a couple weeks before our Parker Christmas and asked if he could read the Bible passage this year. I said yes, that would be great and told him that I would text him the passages when I got home from work.
As we gathered that night and were coming to the end of the singing portion, Mom asked me if I was ready to do the Bible reading, and I said, “Luke- are you ready?”
He said that he was and Mom was excited that he was going to read. So we finished the songs and Luke was quiet for a minute and I noticed that he had his IPad in his hand instead of his Bible, but figured that he was going to read off the tablet.
He looked up and said that we were going to have a guest speaker with us tonight and then I thought… ah- he must have prerecorded it then music started softly playing through his Bluetooth speaker and then the voice started- the first word, I noticed a familiarity as my hearing perked, by the third word I knew the voice and I started bawling like a baby, it was Dad.
As we later learned, when Dad had stayed with Luke and Kathleen a couple of years ago for a few days, Luke had recorded him reading the Christmas story. I don’t believe that I will ever receive a more meaningful and special gift. At the close of the story, Dad ended with his humor and finality, “That’s all folks.”
As we all hugged and cried our Christmas was both sad and sweet. Luke then gave Mom, Lee, and me each a flash drive with the saved recording. It is among my most treasured belongings.
Thank you Luke.
My hands with Dad's the day that he passed away-
photo credit- Luke Parker Photography
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Philippians 1:3