Childlike

Chapter 22 Christmas Day is Here

Chapter 22

Christmas Day is Here

My sisters woke me up at the family’s traditional Christmas wake up time of 6 a.m.  I stretched and complained that it was too early but then eagerly got up, for I, like them, could not wait to open presents. I put on a pair of sweats then went to my dresser and slipped on my watch. Seeing Cindy’s Christmas card, I thought of my most memorable Christmas Eve ever. I picked it up and slowly opened it, regarding its contents.

Realize my own depravity! It made me sound like a child abuser, rapist or mass murderer. I wasn’t that bad of a person. In fact, most thought of me as a kind, gentleman. When I thought about it, this was probably the main thing that was keeping me from accepting Christ as my savior. I just don’t feel the need for a savior.

“Josh! You coming?”

“Yes mom,” I answered, putting Cindy’s card into my dresser drawer.

In between gifts we ate pastries and drank coffee and told jokes and laughed. The Christmas tree glistened and the greeting cards were like icons of friends joining us in our merriment.After the presents were all open we sat back and talked of life and Christmases past and those to come. We reminisced of past Christmases and laughed at the funny memories. Later that afternoon, I said the Christmas dinner prayer and I realized that it was the first time that we alluded any recognition to the birth of our Lord, to which the day is set aside for.  This pained me, as I ate my meal sitting across from Mick, who had accepted my invite to a Yuletide dinner. I figured Pastor Matthew would say the pain was God’s Spirit moving in on me.

“A soccer ball in a net!” Mick said after opening the gift I got him. My sisters giggled.

“You can practice your kicks and the ball always comes back,” I read out loud from the packaging.

“Let’s go out and try it,” my youngest sister Mary suggested.

“Ah, okay!” Mick said, agreeing.

We put on our coats and went out to the front yard. Mick emptied out the bungee net and read the instructions. There were no words to the instructions, just pictures. We put the soccer ball in the bungee net then secured the top of the net to a metal stake that we drove into the ground.

Mary took the first kick. The ball soared until the bungee net reached its limit then snapped back to us hitting Mary in the stomach and knocking her down.  “You okay?” I asked her after helping her up.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” she answered me.

“She’s having a ball!” Mick shouted.

“Ha, ha, ha, very funny,” My sister Annie said, giving the ball another kick. This time the ball went sailing again snapping back as it did before, but having learned from Mary’s misfortune, Annie sidestepped the returning soccer ball.

“Your turn Josh,” she said. It did the same as the two kicks before me and I could tell that after a few more kicks we would be bored out of our minds.

“Okay Mick, now that we’ve broken it in for you, why don’t you give it a try!” I said.

“Ah me, me!” He said.

“Ah me, me?” Annie asked.

“Silvah!” Mick yelled.

“Don’t ask,” I told her as Mick gave the ball a big kick. The ball started off as before but that was the only similarity. This time when it reached its limit the net gave way, ripping out a hole big enough to release the soccer ball which took off flying onto Los Padres Boulevard where a car hit it,bouncing it into another car. We heard a loud pop then lost site of the ball. Mick ran the half block to Los Padres Boulevard, waited for the traffic to stop, then, looking around, ran into the street and bent over picking up something which turned out to be the remains of the soccer ball. He ran back and handed me a hard rubber shell that had once been a ball.