Short Stories

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The Christmas Gift
© 2010

by

Stephen A. Peterson


Carla awakens suddenly having forgotten for a brief moment where she is. Brilliant sunlight tiptoes through the cracks of the blinds forcing her to close her eyes again. Then Carla remembers: “I’m a mom now. I’d better get up and feed my baby.” She sits up to face ever increasing glow of the sun.

“Christina? Christina? My daughter! Where is she?”

Across the room, Robert, her husband, cuddles a small bundle in his arms. “Princess,” he says with a smile. “Didn’t I tell you your mom would awake soon and be ready for you?” Robert walks slowly over to the bed placing the still stirring infant next to her anxious mother.

As Carla looks at the little infant she is still amazed at how small and active this child is. She kisses her head while still trying to take in the events that surrounds this child’s birth. By all medical accounts, Christina was not supposed to be born until the middle of January not December 25th. So Carla and Robert thought that there would be no problem going back home to Oklahoma to visit their families. No one, not even, the best weathermen or women in Colorado, predicted the blizzard that came to Pueblo causing Carla and Robert to check into the off road hotel. The winter storm was so bad that snow removal equipment could not clear the roads for anyone to get to or from the hotel.

Within minutes of Carla and Robert’s arrival word spread that a little one was coming into the world. Though completely full, the couple the couple with reservations deferred to Carla and Robert opting instead to take a small room adjacent to the manager’s office. After the miracle had occurred, a silent group of hotel occupants called on Carla, Robert and little Christina. In this group of visitors was a band of over the road truck drivers. Upon entering the room, one of the truckers stepped forward, removed his ball cap, smiled then said: “Thanks be to God on this Christmas Day! Life in the form of this little girl has been given these parents! For this little girl will change the lives of many!” The trucker reached out to lightly touch the head of little Christina then withdrew from the room.

When the truckers departed, Carla’s thoughts returned to the statement of the one trucker. “Why did the one trucker say what he did? How is it that he knows about my daughter’s future? What does he mean Christina will change the lives of many? Is there some kind of message for me? Us?”

Only seven months before Carla and Robert had struggled with whether or not they would permit Christina to be born. At that time, the young couple struggled with housing, jobs, money and an unplanned pregnancy. A pregnancy two physicians said would be a complicated one. Christina was predicted to have Down’s Syndrome with a myriad of problems. Weeks of conflict occurred between the couple. Robert threatened to abandon Carla if she did not abort. Carla was about to agree when on a hot August afternoon a little head elevated during her work break. Carla knew from that moment that this thing in her was not just tissue but a person longing to be born. A few weeks later as the couple talked about their future, Christina kicked hard enough as he held Carla close. Christina’s act so convinced her father that he came to the conclusion that she is a living person with the right to life as well.

On this Christmas Day, here in the fullness of the day, the knowledge of Christina’s personhood arises in the couple like the morning sun that warms the earth and its creatures below. A person who will forever change their lives and the lives of many countless others whom she touches throughout the course of her life no matter how long or short her life may be. For the moment, Robert and Carla focus their attention solely on the perfectly formed child they agonized over months before. Beyond the roadside hotel where Christina was born, Carla hears the sounds of the world as it hurries by—automobiles, jet planes, plastic shoes—moving to the sounds of stores cash registers, ipods and talking computers. All of these things mean nothing to her for the moment just the little bundle of joy.

On the road back to Oklahoma, Robert and Carla independently reflect upon what had taken place in a roadside Colorado hotel. They both recall how they struggled with thoughts of joy and happiness tempered with those periods of sadness and doubt. “What if I/we would have agreed to have aborted Christina? How could medical professionals have been so wrong about the outcome? Why did that one trucker say what he did about Christina? Did he know something that I/we do not know? How strange that a group of truckers should file by Christina in this manner! Lots of babies are born. Why is Christina so different than any other child? Perhaps the reason has to do with we choosing to let Christina live. It seems obvious that God has something special for her to do. Maybe that is what the trucker meant,” thought Carla while holding Christina close to her heart as they neared the Oklahoma border.

Carla reached for Robert’s hand. The truth shines radiant in the cold December air, it seemed, even brighter than the sunlight: “God is alive in the world and in my heart through this little girl. I now understand why I should choose life. Looking into her face, I’ve seen the face of God. How will people respond to Christina? In what manner will Christina affect their lives? Is Christina a special child? Or is she like all other children—special gifts whose very existence and presence present their God given personalities to the world.”

As the car shakes and rolls on towards Seminole, Oklahoma, Christina cries. Carla opens the little bag of formula and positions her for her feeding. Suddenly, Carla realizes that this very act answers many of her questions. Carla leaves her experience of Christina’s birth in that Pueblo hotel room forever knowing why she received this most precious gift on Christmas Day.

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