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WHITE ROSES
I hurried into the local department store to
grab some last minute
Christmas gifts. I looked at all the people and grumbled
to myself.
I would be in here forever and I just had so much to do.
Christmas
was beginning to become such a drag. I kinda wished that
I could
just sleep through Christmas. But I hurried the best I
could through
all the people to the toy department. Once again I kind
of mumbled
to myself atthe prices of all these toys, and wondered if
the
grandkids would even play with them. I found myself in
the doll aisle.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a little boy about 5
holding a lovely
doll. He kept touching her hair and he held her so gently.
I could not
seem to help myself. I just kept looking over at the
little boy and
wondered who the doll was for. I watched him turn to a
woman and
he called his aunt by name and said, "Are you sure I
don't have
enough money?".
She replied a bit impatiently, " You know that you
don't have enough
money for it." The aunt told the little boy not to
go anywhere that she
had to go get some other things and would be back in a
few minutes.
And then she left the aisle. The boy continued to hold
the doll. After
a bit I asked the boy who the doll was for. He said,
"It is the doll my
sister wanted so badly for Christmas. She just knew that
Santa
would bring it." I told him that maybe Santa was
going to bring it.
He said, "No Santa can't go where my sister is...I
have to give the
doll to my Mamma to take to her". I asked him where
his sister was.
He looked at me with the saddest eyes and said," She
has gone to
be with Jesus. My Daddy says that Mama is going to have
to go be
with her."
My heart nearly stopped beating. Then the boy looked at
me again
and said, "I told my Daddy to tell Mama not to go. I
told him to tell her
to wait till I got back from the store". Then he
asked me if I wanted to
see his picture. I told him I would love to. He pulled
out some pictures
he'd had taken at the front of the store. He said, "
I want my Mamma
to take this with her so she don't forget me. I love my
Mama so very
much and I wish she did not have to leave me. But Daddy
says she
will need to be with my sister." I saw that the
little boy had lowered
his head and had grown so very quiet. While he was not
looking I
reached into my purse and pulled out ahandful of bills. I
asked the
little boy, "Shall we count that money one more time?"
He grew
excited and said, "Yes, I just know it has to be
enough".
So I slipped my money in with his and we began to count
it. Of
course it was plenty for the doll. He softly said, "
Thank you Jesus
for giving me enough money." Then the boy said,
"I just aked
Jesus to give me enough money to buy this doll so Mama
can
take it with her to give to my sister. And he heard my
prayer. I
wanted to ask him for enough to buy my Mama a white rose,
but
I didn't ask him, but he gave me enough to buy the doll
and a rose
for my Mama. She loves white roses so very, very much."
In a few
minutes the aunt came back and I wheeled my cart away. I
could
not keep from thinking about the little boy as I finished
my shopping
in a totally different spirit than when I had started.
And I kept
remembering a story I had seen in the newspaper several
days
earlier about a drunk driver hitting a car and killing a
little girl and
the Mother was in serious condition. The family was
deciding on
whether to remove the life support. Now surely this
little boy did not
belong to that story. Two days later I read in the paper
where the family
had disconnected the life support and the young woman had
died. I
could not forget the little boy and just kept wondering
if the two were
somehow connected.
Later that day, I could not help myself and I went out
and bought some
white roses and took them to the funeral home where the
young woman
was. And there she was holding a lovely white rose, the
beautiful doll,
and the picture of the little boy in the store.
I left there in tears, my life changed forever. The love
that little boy had
for his little sister and his mother was overwhelming.
And in a split
second a drunk driver had ripped the life of that little
boy to pieces.
~Author Unknown~
"Friends
are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have
trouble remembering how to fly"
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