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Dec. 25, 2022 - Doug Collins Podcast
39:09
A Candle in the Forest
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Your navigator in a volatile world of investments.
You want to listen to a podcast?
By who?
Georgia GOP Congressman Doug Collins.
How is it?
The greatest thing I have ever heard in my whole life.
I could not believe my ears.
In this house, wherever the rules are disregarded, chaos and mob rule.
It has been said today, where is bravery?
I'll tell you where bravery is found and courage is found.
It's found in this minority who has lived through the last year of nothing but rules being broken, people being put down, questions not being answered, and this majority say, be damned with anything else.
We're going to impeach and do whatever we want to do.
Why?
Because we won an election.
I guarantee you, one day you'll be back in the minority and it ain't gonna be that fun.
Merry Christmas, everybody.
It's Doug Collins.
Today's going to be a special edition of the Doug Collins Podcast, and we're just going to take it back.
We're not going to...
I don't have a guest today.
I don't have...
We're not going to talk politics.
We're not going to talk the different things.
We're going to talk about, really, for just a little while, about this Christmas season, about the season...
That we're in right now, the holiday season, and there's many things going on and people are rushing back and forth.
But I just wanted to take a minute from my perspective, and that would be a Christian-based Christmas perspective, that gives us an opportunity to reflect on what really, really matters and some things.
For those of you who know, I was actually pastored for over 11 years at a little church called Chickpea Baptist Church in Gainesville, Georgia, just outside of Gainesville, in between Gainesville and Oakwood.
Every year, and I've shared this before, I am not the Christmas person as I have grown older.
In other words, my wife, she decorates everything.
My wife has the house completely decorated.
It's beautiful.
She does all of it herself.
This year being retired, she's had more time than ever, and our house literally looks like a winter wonderland.
I love to see her eyes glisten because she just gets so excited about Christmas.
I'm excited about Christmas in the sense of I like Christmas, but I also am sort of a melancholy Christmas person.
I like the significance of meaning, but for me, it's always been sort of toward the end of the year.
When I was pastoring Christmas and then New Year's, you were coming to the end of the year, and I liked the little things.
The little things began to be the thing that...
Drove me.
The quiet moments.
The silent nights.
I don't know about you.
Maybe for you, it's when you play Silent Night very slowly on a piano.
It just is amazing to me.
You take songs and just the breadth and depth of Christmas, for me, was in those moments of reflection.
Those moments of looking at what Christmas means, and if you look at it from our Christian perspective, it means that Jesus was born, that we celebrate the birth of Christ, that God loved us so much that he gave himself on Christmas, and I think that's an amazing that God loved us so much that he gave himself on But I've always also been one to think about the Christmas story in different ways.
And there's places you find the Christmas story.
Luke chapter 2 from the Bible in the New Testament talks about the Christmas story.
And it talks about, you know, Mary and Joseph going to have the child Jesus and gets there.
And the whole story, and it's something I want to focus on here for just a few minutes, and then I've got a special, special story for you.
This will be something you can share with the family on Christmas.
It's something that you can, if you have a moment and you're driving and maybe you're going between the in-laws, or in my case, the in-laws, the out-laws, and everybody else, it'll be a chance in which you can just put this podcast in and tell everybody just to be quiet.
And listen.
And the story that I have read at my church many times that I have shared with our family, it's a story that I'm looking forward to sharing with you here in just a moment.
But I want to focus on something first that I believe our country in many ways needs to hear at this Christmas season.
And it is that all of us matter.
And I think when you look at the Christmas story and you look at the story from the scripture, we see the story of them going, David and Mary, and they went.
And it's always been fascinating to me that one of the...
The Christmas play always features an innkeeper who says, no room, no room.
I read a story one time where the pastor went up to this young little boy and he was just in tears before the Christmas story, the Christmas play at their church.
The little boy was just upset and the pastor came to him and he says, what is the problem?
Why are you so upset?
We're getting ready for the Christmas play and you've got a great part.
You're going to be the innkeeper.
And the little boy looked up at the pastor and he said, but pastor, he said, I don't want to tell Jesus he doesn't have a room.
And the pastor was, of course, taken back and he explained that.
But imagine that right there.
You know, my question to so many, especially for believers in Christmas, is do we have room for Jesus?
Do we have room for Christ?
The Christ of Christmas, do we have room for?
But after you have this and it says, she wrapped him in swaddling clothes, I'm from the old King James, and placed him in a manger because there's no room for them in the end.
But the very next verse hits on something that I want all of us to understand.
Democrats, Republicans, independents, conservatives, liberals, everybody else, is that we're all in this together and that everybody matters.
And our country needs to hear this.
Because the next people that are said that we switch from the birth of Jesus to the next verse in Luke chapter 2, verse 8 said, And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night.
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified or sore afraid.
But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid.
I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all people.
Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you.
He is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign to you that you will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
you've heard that before.
Maybe that's the first time you've ever heard it.
But what strikes me the most about this story is that the first people that are recorded hearing what we call the good news of Jesus' birth or the Christmas Day birth is shepherds.
Shepherds who at one point in the scripture were, you know, David was a shepherd.
We had these great in the Old Testament, the Jewish writings, where shepherds were a very honored profession.
And then as it gets into the, you know, as more modern times come, shepherds were out in the fields and not as highlighted as you saw it earlier.
But it also highlighted the real just people who got up and went to work.
I mean, they washed over their flocks.
They had a very lonely job many times with the flocks out in the fields, in the barren fields, away from people.
But it's interesting to me that the first moments of this story, the scripture records that they were the first to hear.
And I've wondered about that often.
Why were they the first to hear?
You know, they didn't run into the churches.
They didn't run into the synagogue.
They didn't run into the synagogues.
They didn't run to, you know, it wasn't announced in the cities, and it wasn't announced, you know, in the religious environments or the secular environments, in that matter, from just a venue perspective.
It was announced in the fields with folks who were just doing their job.
Shepherds who were out there washing over, as it says, their flocks.
I think what just speaks to me so much in this story is that the shepherds represent all of us.
That the hope of Christmas came for all.
The hope of Christmas was not relegated to those who had made it, thought they had made it, or hoped to have made it.
It was relegated and given not to a select few, but was given to all.
The good news was spread to those who, one, didn't expect it, and spread to those, two, who probably were the most receptive to it.
We talk politics on this podcast all the time.
And we talk life.
This year we've had some great times on how do we live life better.
I can't think of a better way to talk about this time of the year than to say a self-evaluation.
The peace of Christmas came that you did not have to stay as you were.
That was the whole premise of Christ's coming, that he saw, that God saw our condition, sent his son for us.
And Christmas is that celebration.
It is fulfilled in what the Christians celebrate as Easter.
But it was started in Christmas, and it was offered to all.
And as we go about our everyday, my question is, if you take your faith and if you look at faith, the question comes to mind is, are we willing to give ourselves to all?
Remember, when he gave life to us, it was not for us to keep, it was for us to give away.
I've shared many times, and I shared with Pastor Darrell Scott, who was on our podcast just earlier this month, and we talked about the fact that what we go through in life, the circumstances in life, were not meant for us to just store away and keep for ourselves.
They were meant to give away so that others could learn from what we had been through.
You see, these shepherds, once they heard about it, they had to go sell somebody.
And for me, I want to just share with you this, that we have a country that is an amazing country.
We have a place that is great.
And as we celebrate Christmas this season, or as others, they celebrate Hanukkah, they celebrate other holidays during this season.
But for me as a Christian, Christmas tells me that there's nothing that I have that I, in many ways, should not be willing to share with others, especially when it comes to life and hope and love and joy.
And it may come in those special moments, that quiet moment on Christmas Eve when you've got all the kids to bed or everybody who's come to visit, they're all quiet and you just walk out on your back porch or you walk out on the front porch and it's just quiet and you look up into the stars and you just reflect on the fact that you have life, that each day the sun's going to get up and each night the moon is going to shine and that you have another day to not only reflect on where you've been, but where you can go.
And you're living in a country that provides that opportunity.
So today, as we just take a few moments to celebrate what I believe is the story surrounding Christmas, and that is the fact that it was for everyone.
Not just the ones, like I said.
We see it all the time.
You know, the ones who think, you know, we've got it made.
Or the ones that believe themselves to be set apart.
But at the end of the day, it was about all people.
And I think that's what our country needs right now more than anything.
Is we may disagree on so many things.
But we're also, if we're brought together in a way in which we listen, in which way we care, in which way we understand, then that is giving of ourselves.
And that, to me, is the greatest gift that we can give at Christmas.
A number of years ago, I was pastoring.
And even before then, I was at my home church of River Bend Baptist Church, which was where I grew up.
And our pastor at the time was a guy named Joe Bagwell.
And Joe, we would have a Christmas Eve service or a Christmas, right around Christmas service, special family service.
And he brought a story out to read.
And everybody would sit with their families and people would listen.
And it was an old story.
It's been out for 100 plus years.
And it was one shared by many families on Christmas or around Christmas that brought back sort of the true meaning of this season.
And as I was thinking about how could we sort of end this Christmas season, we've had some great guests this week.
and what we could do to maybe just give a moment to reflect.
It came to me, why don't you just read the story?
And so that's what I'm going to do for the rest of this podcast.
So if you're driving, you're working out, you're listening, I'm getting ready to tell you the story of The Candle in the Forest by Temple Bailey.
The small girl's mother was saying, the onions will be silver and the carrots will be gold.
And the potatoes will be ivory, said the small girl, and they laughed together.
The small girl's mother had a big white bowl in her lap and she was cutting up vegetables.
The onions were the hardest because she cried over them.
But our tears will be pearls, said the small girl's mother.
And they laughed at that and dried their eyes and found the carrots much easier and the potatoes easiest of all.
Then the next door neighbor came in and said, What are you doing?
We're making a vegetable pie for our Christmas dinner, the small girl's mother said.
And the onions are silver and the carrots are gold and the potatoes are ivory, said the small girl.
I'm sure I do not know what you're talking about, said the next door neighbor.
We're going to have turkey for dinner and cranberry and celery.
The small girl laughed and clapped her hands.
But we're going to have a Christmas pie and the onions will be silver and the carrots gold.
You said that once, said the next door neighbor.
And I should think you'd know that there weren't anything of the kind.
But they are, said the little small girl, all shining eyes and rosy cheeks.
Run along, darling, said the small girl's mother.
And fine poor pussy Purup, he's out in the cold and you can put on your red sweater and red cap.
So the small girl hopped away like a happy robin and the next door neighbor said, she's old enough to know that onions aren't silver.
But they are, said the small girl's mother.
And carrots are gold and the potatoes are...
And the next door neighbor's face was flaming.
If you say that again, I'll scream.
It sounds silly to me.
But it isn't really in the least bit silly, the small girl's mother said, and her eyes were blue as sapphires, as clear as the sea.
It is sensible.
When people are poor, they have to make the most of little things, and we only have expensive things in our pie.
But the onions will be silver.
The lips of the next-door neighbor were folded in a thin line.
If you had acted like a sensible creature, I shouldn't have to ask you for the rent.
The small girl's mother was silent for a moment, and then she said, I'm sorry.
It ought to be sensible to make the best of things.
Well, said the next-door neighbor, sitting down in a chair with a very stiff back, a pie is a pie, and I wouldn't want to teach a child to call it anything else.
I haven't taught her to call it anything else.
I was only trying to make her feel that it was something fine and splendid for Christmas Day.
So I said that the onions were silver.
Don't say that again, snapped the next door neighbor.
And I want the rent as soon as possible.
With that, she flung up her head and marched out the front door and slammed it behind her and made wild echoes in the little home.
And the small girl's mother stood there alone in the middle of the floor.
Her eyes were like a sea in a storm.
But presently the door opened and the small girl, looking like a red-breast robin, hopped in after her and came a big, great, big black cat with his tail in the air and said, purr up, which had gave him his name.
And the small girl said, out of the things she had been thinking, mother, why don't we have a turkey?
The clear look came back in the eyes of the small girl's mother and she said, because we are content.
And the small girl said, What is content?
And her mother said, It is making the best of what God gives us, and our best for Christmas Day, and my darling is our Christmas pie.
So she kissed the small girl, and they finished peeling the vegetables, and then they put them into the simmer on the back of the stove.
After that, the small girl had her supper of bread and milk and the cat had milk in the saucer on the hearth and the small girl climbed up on her mother's lap and said, But the small girl's mother said, Now,
what do you want, mother, more than anything else in the whole wide world?
Well, said the mother, I want a chocolate mouse.
Oh, said the small girl scornfully, I shouldn't think you would want that.
Why not?
Because a chocolate mouse isn't anything.
Oh, yes it is, the small girl's mother said.
A chocolate mouse is dickery-dickery-dock.
A pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?
Was frightened under a chair.
And the mice, and three blind mice, ran after a farmer's wife.
And the mouse, and a frog would go a-wooing, went down the throat of the crow.
And the small girl said, could a chocolate mouse do all of that?
And well, the small girl's mother said, we could put him on the clock and under a chair and cut off his tail with a carving knife and at the very least we could eat him like a crow.
The small girl said, shiveringly delicious, and he wouldn't be a real mouse.
No, just a chocolate one with cream inside.
Do you think I'll get one for Christmas?
I'm not sure, said the mother.
Wouldn't he be nicer than a doll?
And the small girl's mother hesitated and then told her the truth.
My darling mother saved up money for her doll, but the next door neighbor wants the rent.
Hasn't daddy any more money?
Poor daddy has been sick so long.
But he's well now.
I know.
But he has to pay for the doctors and money for medicine and money for your red sweater and money for the kitten and money for our pie.
The boy next door says we're poor, mother.
We are rich, my darling.
We have love, each other, and our little kitty Purup.
His mother won't let him have a cat, said the small girl, with her mind still on the boy next door.
But he's going to have a radio.
Would you rather have a radio than your kitten Purup?
The small girl gave a crowed vision and said, I'd rather have my kitten Purup than anything else in the whole wide world.
At that, the great cat, who had been sitting on the hearth, with his paws tucked under him and his eyes like moons, stretched out his satin-shining length and jumped up on the arm of the chair beside the small girl and her mother and began to sing a song that was like a mill wheel away off.
He purred to them so loud and so long that at last the small girl grew drowsy.
Tell me some more about the chocolate mouse, she said and nodded and slept.
The small girl's mother carried her into another room and put her to bed and came back to the kitchen and it was full of shadows.
But she did not let herself sit among them.
She wrapped herself in a great cape and went out into the cold dusk.
There was a sweep of wind and heavy clouds overhead and a band of dull orange showing on the back of the trees where the sun had burned down.
She went straight from her little house to the big house of the next door neighbor and rang the bell at the back entrance.
A maid led her into the kitchen and there was the next door neighbor and two women who worked for her and a daughter-in-law who had come to spend Christmas.
The great range was glowing and things were simmering and they were stewing and they were steaming.
Things were baking, things were boiling and things were boiling over and things were fragrances of a thousand delicious dishes in the air.
And the next door neighbor said, We are trying to get as much done as possible tonight.
We have plans for 12 people for Christmas dinner tomorrow.
And the daughter-in-law, who was all dressed up and had an apron tied about her, said in a sharp voice, I can't see why you don't let your maids work for you.
And the next door neighbor said, I have always worked.
There is no excuse for laziness.
And the daughter-in-law said, I am not lazy, if that's what you mean, and we'll never have any dinner if I have to cook it.
And she went out of the kitchen with tears of rage in her eyes.
And the next-door neighbor said, If she hadn't have gone when she did, I should have told her to go.
And there was rage in her eyes, but no tears.
She took her hands out of the pan of breadcrumbs and sage, which was being mixed for the stuffing, and said to the small girl's mother, Did you come to pay the rent?
And the small girl's mother handed her the money, and the next door neighbor went upstairs to write a receipt.
Nobody asked the small girl's mother to sit down, so she stood in the middle of the floor and sniffed the entrancing fragrances and looked at the mountain of food that would have served her small family for a month.
While she waited, the boy next door came in and said, Are you the small girl's mother?
Yes.
Are you going to have a tree?
Oh, yes.
Do you want to see mine?
It would be wonderful.
So he led her down a long passage to a great room, and there was a tree that touched the ceiling.
And on the very top branches and on all the other branches were myriads of little lights that shone like stars.
And there were gold balls and silver ones and red and blue and green balls.
And under the tree and on it were toys for boys and toys for girls.
And on one of the toys was a doll in a pink dress.
At that, the heart of the small girl's mother tightened.
And she was glad she wasn't a thief or she would have snatched it at that pink doll when the boy wasn't looking and hidden it under a cape and ran away with it.
The next door neighbor boy was saying, it is the finest tree anybody around here has, but dad and mother don't know that I've seen it.
Oh, they don't, the small girl's mother said.
No, the boy next door said with a wide grin, and it's fun to fool him.
Is it?
said the small girl's mother.
Now, do you know, I should think that the very nicest thing in the whole world would have not been to see the tree.
Because, the small girl's mother said, the nicest thing in the world would be to have somebody tie a handkerchief around your eyes so tight and then have somebody take your hand and lead you in and out and in and out and in and out until you didn't know where you were and then have them untie the handkerchief so there would be the tree, all shining and splendid.
She stopped, but her singing voice seemed to echo and re-echo in the great room.
The boy's staring eyes had a new look in them.
Did anybody ever tie a handkerchief over your eyes?
Oh, yes!
And lead you out and in and in and out?
Yes!
Well, nobody does things like that in our house.
That's silly.
And the small girl's mother laughed, and her laugh tinkled like a bell.
Do you think it's silly?
He was eager.
No, I don't.
And she held out her hand to him and said, Will you come and see our tree?
Tonight, he said.
No, tomorrow morning, early.
Before breakfast, she nodded.
I'd like it.
So that was a bargain, and with a quick squeeze of their hands on it, the small girl's mother went back to the kitchen, and the next-door neighbor came down with a receipt, and the small girl's mother went out to the back door and found that the orange band that had burned on the horizon was gone, and that there was just the wind and the singing of the trees.
Two men passed her on the brick wall that led to the house, and one of the men was saying,"'If you'd only been fair to me, Father,' and the other man said,"'All you want of me is money.'" You taught me that, Father.
Blame it on me.
You are to blame.
You and Mother, did you ever show me the finer things?
Their angry voices seemed to beat against the noise of the wind and the singing trees, so that the small girl's mother shivered and drew her cape around her and ran as fast as she could to her little house.
There were all the shadows to meet her, but she did not sit among them.
She made coffee and a dish of hot milk toast and set the toast in the oven to keep hot, and then she stood at the window watching.
At last she saw through the darkness what looked like a star low down, and she knew that that star was a lantern, and she ran out and opened the door wide.
And her young husband set the lantern down on the threshold and took her in his arms and said, The sight of you is more than food and drink.
And when he said that, she knew that he had had a hard day, but her heart leaped because she knew that what he said was true.
Then they went into the house together, and she set the food before him, and that he might forget his hard day, she told him of her own.
And when they came to the part about the next-door neighbor and the rent, she said, I'm telling you this because it has a happy ending.
And he put his hands over hers and said, Well, this is a happy ending, the small girl's mother said, with all the sapphires in her eyes emphasizing it.
Because when I went over there to pay the rent, I was feeling how poor we were and wishing that I had a pink doll for baby and books for you and magic carpet to carry us away from worry and work.
And then I went into the parlor and I saw the tree with everything hanging on it that was glittering and gorgeous.
And then I came home and her breath was quick and her lips were smiling.
I came home and I was glad I lived in my little home.
What made you glad, dearest?
Oh, love is here, and hate is there, and a boy's deceit and a man's injustice, and they were sharp things said to each other, and their dinner will be a stalled ox, and in my little house is the faith of a child and the goodness of God, and the bravery of a man who fought for his country.
She was in his arms now.
And the blessing of a woman who has never known defeat, his voice broke on those cords.
In that moment it seemed as if the tree stopped sighing as if there was a sound of heavenly singing.
The small girl's mother and the small girl's father sat up very late that night.
They popped a great bowl full of crisp snow corn and made it into balls.
They boiled sugar and molasses and cracked nuts and made candy of them.
They cut funny little Christmas fairies out of paper and painted their jackets bright red and with round silver buttons of tin foil that came on cream cheese.
And then they put the balls and the candy and the painted fairies and the long red candle in a big basket and set it away.
And the small girl's mother brought out the chocolate mouse.
We will put this on the clock, she said, where her eyes will rest on it the first thing in the morning.
And so they put it there, and it seemed as natural as life.
And even the kitten Purup positively licked his chops and sat in front of the clock to keep his eye on the chocolate mouse.
The small girl's mother said she was lovely about giving up the doll, and she will love the tree.
Well, you'll have to get up very early, said the small girl's father, and you'll have to run ahead to light the candle.
Well, they got up before dawn the next morning, and so did the boy next door.
He was there on the step waiting, pulling his hands and beating them quite like a poor little boy would do in the Christmas story who haven't any mittens.
But he wasn't a poor little boy, and he had so many pairs of fur-trimmed gloves that he didn't know what to do with them.
them, but he had gotten up from the house and left in such a hurry that he had forgotten to put them on.
So there he stood on the front steps of the little house, blowing on his hands and beating them.
And it was dark with a sort of pale shine in the heavens, which didn't seem to come from the stars or the herald of the dawn.
it was just a mystical silver glow that set the boy's heart to beating.
It was just a mystical silver glow that set the boy's heart to beating.
He had never been out alone like this.
He had never been out alone like this.
He had always stayed in his warm bed until somebody called him, and then he had waited until they called again, and then he had dressed and gone down to breakfast where his father scolded him because he was late, and his mother scolded him because he ate too fast.
But this day had begun with adventure, and for the first time under that silvery sky, he felt the thrill of it.
Then suddenly someone came around the house, someone tall and thin with a cap on his head and an empty basket in his hands.
Hello, he said.
Merry Christmas.
And he was the small girl's father, and he put the key in the lock and went in and turned on a light, and there was a table set for four.
And the small girl's father said, You see, we have set a place for you.
You must eat something before we go out.
And the boy said, Are we going out?
I came to see the tree.
We are going out to see the tree.
And before the boy could ask any questions, the small girl's mother appeared with her fingers on her lips, and she said, And then began to recite in a hushed voice, And then there was a little cry and the sound of dancing feet, and the small girl in a red dressing gown came flying in.
Oh, mother, mother, the mouse is on the clock, the mouse is on the clock.
Well, it seemed to the little boy that he had never seen anything so exciting as the things that followed.
The chocolate mouse went up the clock and under the chair and would have had its tail cut off except for the little girl begged to save it.
I want to keep it as it is, mother!
And playing this game as if it were the most important thing in the whole wide world were the small girl's mother and the small girl's father.
All laughing and flushed and chanting the old quaint words to the quaint old music.
And the boy next door held his breath for fear he would wake up from this entrancing dream and find himself in his own big house alone in his puffy bed or eating breakfast with his stodgy parents who never played with him in his life.
He found himself laughing too and flushed and happy and trying to sing in his funny boy voice.
The small girl absolutely refused to eat the mouse.
"'He's my darling Christmas mouse, mother.' So the mother said, well, I'll put him on the clock again where Kit and Purup can't get to him while we are out.
Oh, we're going out, the small girl said, all round-eyed.
Yes, we're going.
Where are we going?
To find Christmas.
And that was all the small girl that the mother would tell.
So they had breakfast and everything tasted perfectly delicious to the boy next door.
But first they bowed their heads and the small girl's father said, Dear Christ child, on this Christmas morning bless these children and keep our hearts young and full of love for thee.
The boy next door, when he lifted his head, had a funny feeling as if he wanted to cry, and yet it was a lovely feeling, all warm and comfortable.
For breakfast, they each had a great baked apple and great slices of sweet bread and butter and great glasses of milk, and as soon as they had finished, away they went out the door and down into the woods in the back of the house.
When they were deep into the wood, the small girl's father took out of his pocket a little flute and began to play.
He played thin piping tunes that went flittering around the trees.
And the small girl and her mother hummed the tunes until it sounded like singing bees.
And their feet fairly danced and the boy found himself humming and dancing with them.
Then suddenly the piping ceased and a hush fell over the woods.
It was so still they could almost hear each other breathe.
So still that when a light flamed suddenly in the open space, it burned without a flicker.
The light came from a red candle that was set in the top of a small living tree.
It was the only light on the tree but it showed with the snowy balls and the small red fairies whose coats had silver buttons.
It's our tree, my darling, he heard the small girl's mother say.
Suddenly it seemed to the boy that his heart would burst in his breast.
He wanted someone to speak to him like that.
The small girl sat high on her father's shoulders and her father held her mother's hand.
It was like a chain of gold.
They're holding hands like that.
They're loving each other.
The boy reached out and touched the woman's hand.
She looked down at him and drew him close.
He felt warm and comforted.
Their candle burning there in the darkness was like some sacred fire of friendship.
He wished that it would never go out and that he might stand there watching it with his small cold hand and the claps of the small girl's mother's hands.
It was late when the boy next door got back to his own big house, but he had not been missed.
Everybody was up.
Everything was upset.
The daughter-in-law had declared the night before that she would not stay another day beneath that roof and off she had gone with her young husband.
and her little girl who was to have the, had the pink doll on the tree.
And good riddance, said the next-door neighbor, before she ate no breakfast, and she went to the kitchen and worked with her maids to get the dinner ready.
And there were covers laid for nine instead of twelve.
And the next door neighbor kept saying,"'Good riddance!
Good riddance!' And not once did she say,"'Merry Christmas!' But the boy next door had something in his heart that was warm and glowing like the candle in the forest.
And he came to his mother and said,"'May I have the pink dolly?' She spoke frowningly,"'What does a boy want with a doll?'"'I'd like to give it to the little girl next door.'"'Do you think I can buy dolls to give away in charity?'"'Well, they gave me a Christmas present.' We're
It was more than that.
It was a magic pipe that made you dance and made your heart warm and happy.
So he said again, I'd like to give her the doll.
And he reached out his little hand and touched his mother's, and his eyes were wistful.
His mother's own eyes softened.
She had lost one son that day, and she said, oh well, do as you please, and went back to the kitchen.
The boy next door ran into the great room and took the doll from the tree and wrapped her in paper and flew out the door and down the brick wall and straight to the little house.
When the door was opened, he saw that his friends were just sitting down to dinner, and there was the pie, all brown and piping hot, with a wreath of holly, and the small girl was saying, and the onions are silver, and the carrots are gold.
And the boy next door went up to the small girl and said, And the small girl's mother said, It was a beautiful thing to do, and she bent and kissed him.
Again, that bursting feeling came into the boy's heart, and he lifted his face to hers and said, May I come sometimes and be your boy?
And she said, Yes.
And when at last he went away, she stood in the door and watched him, such a little lad who knew so little of loving.
And because she knew so much of love, her eyes filled to overflowing.
But presently, she wiped the tears away and went back to the table.
And she smiled at the small girl and the small girl's father.
And the potatoes were ivory.
And she said, oh, who would ask for a turkey when they can have a pie like this?
Folks, I want to thank you for becoming part of my family through the Doug Collins podcast.
I hope you enjoyed that story.
I hope it reminded you that no matter what you have or don't have, the greatest thing and greatest gift we can have is love.
And by sharing these moments with me on this podcast, you have shared your love.
And from me and my family, from Lisa, from Jordan and Copeland and Cameron, we share our love with you.
May God bless you and have a merry, merry Christmas.
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