Diary of an Angel (12 page)

Angela let her arm fall to her side. The snowball fell from her hand. Tears were already forming in her eyes. Then she ran up and threw her arms around Jack, who was still stunned. Her embrace roused him from his trance. He, too, dropped his snowball and wrapped his arms around her, twirling her in the air. Setting her down again, he gazed into Angela’s eyes, and she into his.

Not a soul on earth could have held back the kiss that followed. Such a kiss it was that the clouds wept for joy, sending a shower of soft snowflakes down upon them. But Jack and Angela never felt them.

An Unexpected Arrangement

W
hen the family awoke on Christmas morning, the snow had grown deeper. Fresh clumps of it rested on their snowman, covering his charcoal eyes and baseball cap. The front walkway showed no evidence that Jack had shoveled away the snow the day before. Nor did it reveal any footprints leading up to the front porch, where now sat a large red box.

Kailey was the first to wake—of course. She eagerly announced the dawning of Christmas morning so that everyone could hear loud and clear. Angela yawned, then rolled over. Kailey would not find a tree skirted with piles of presents this Christmas morning. Angela forced her eyes open. It was still dark in their room. Outside the daylight had just begun to glow faintly along the horizon. She turned to Jack, who was still slumbering audibly, kissed his cheek, then got out of bed.

Instead of putting on her robe and going immediately out, though, she knelt down at the side of her bed and offered a short, but sincere, prayer. She thanked the Lord for the joy she had felt the day before and for at least one more Christmas she could spend with her family in the house she had known so long. Then she petitioned Him to help her children understand why this Christmas had to be different from past Christmases.

She ended her prayer, rose from her knees, and put on her robe. Then, taking a deep breath, she went out to find her children, fully expecting to find Justin and Kailey huddled around the Christmas tree, sorting through the paltry assortment of gifts, and wearing dejected faces. Instead, she found them in the kitchen with Catherine.

“What are you three up to?” Angela asked, surprised to see Catherine already awake. Catherine fully knew the Christmas gifts would be scanty this year—not worth waking up early for.

Kailey excitedly responded to Angela’s inquiry. “We’re making Christmas pancakes!”

“Christmas pancakes?”

“Yeah, in the shape of Christmas trees.” Kailey explained. Angela raised one eyebrow and looked at Catherine. But Catherine just shrugged.

“Oh...well, that sounds nice. Do you want any help?”

“You can go wake up Daddy,” suggested Kailey.

“I’ll do that.”

Angela returned to the bedroom. Jack was already awake—mostly. He gave her a groggy smile, and yawned.

“Good morning!” Angela greeted him. “You’ll never guess what the kids are up to.”

“They’re not moping about the lack of presents under the tree?”

“Nope, no moping. They’re making breakfast—Christmas pancakes.”

“Hmm...breakfast before Christmas presents. What’s happened to our children?”

“I don’t know,
but I’m not going to complain.”

All through breakfast no one mentioned anything about presents. Not even Kailey. The Christmas pancakes had not turned out exactly as Kailey had envisioned them. They were more like rounded triangles than trees. But everyone seemed to enjoy eat
ing them just the same.

“Shall we go open presents?” Angela asked, attempting to sound enthusiastic.

Except for Kailey, who responded happily, Angela’s suggestion produced a half-hearted chorus of assent from Jack and the two eldest children.

The dreaded event took no time at all. Angela and Jack had purchased and wrapped one modest gift for each child. They decided to forgo buying presents for each other. Catherine, Justin, and Kailey did their best to act pleased with their presents. And Angela greatly appreciated their efforts. It made everything less painful than she anticipated. After they had finished, Kailey suggested they go play in the snow again. Everyone readily agreed; the memory of the previous day’s fun was still fresh in their minds.

Angela had just donned her coat, when Kailey’s excited voiced rang through the house.

“Santa came! Santa came! Santa came!”

Surprised by this unexpected announcement—especially since she knew all the presents had been opened—, Angela went to find out what the fuss was about.
Had Jack decided to splurge on something for the kids without telling me?
she wondered. But she quickly dismissed the idea. They simply could not afford any kind of extravagance. Jack knew it.
Didn’t he?

Angela found the front door wide open and Kailey standing on the porch, leaning over a large red box.

“Look, Mom! Look! It’s from Santa, I’m sure it is!” Kailey exclaimed when she saw Angela.

“Did you just find it sitting there?” Angela asked.

“Uh, huh. It’s too big, I can’t move it.”

Angela made a cursory examination of the box, then shrugged her shoulders and leaned over to pick it up.

“Wow, this is heavy! What could possibly be inside?”

She hefted it into the house and over to the living room, where she set it down on the floor next to the Christmas tree. No name tag or identifying information was to be found on the outside of the box. Angela suspected their mystery meal provider had something to do with this.

“Well, should we find out what’s inside?” she said to Kailey, who was dancing around the package excitedly.

“Yeah, yeah!”

Angela and Kailey proceeded to tear the glossy red paper from the box. This revealed a nondescript brown cardboard box, which they worked to remove the tape from in order to open the top. When they’d finally succeeded, Angela gaped in at its contents.

“There
’s a turkey inside.”

“And presents too, Mommy!” Kailey exclaimed with joy.

“And some other Christmas-feast trimmings. Look Kailey, there’s a present for you.” Angela handed Kailey a small package, wrapped with shiny red paper and tied with a silver bow.

“Oh boy!” Kailey cried. “Can I open it, Mom?”

“Just wait a minute, honey.”

Angela removed the other three presents from the box and inspected their printed labels. There was one for Catherine, one for Justin, and one for both Jack and Angela.

“Maybe we should call everyone else to come and see what Santa brought,” Angela said with a smile.

“Yeah!” Kailey said, as she ran off to roundup the rest of the family.

Reluctantly, the remaining three members of the family percolated back into the living room, confused by Kailey’s message.

“What’s going on?” Catherine asked, mostly dressed now to go out.

Angela took the present labeled
Catherine
and held it out to her.

“Here, this is for you. And Justin, this is yours.”

“Where did these come from?” Catherine inquired.

“I believe from the same angel that’s been making us dinners.”

“From Santa!” Kailey corrected.

“Right, I mean from Santa,” Angela said.

Jack entered the room asking the same question as Catherine. Angela briefly explained her view of the situation, while Kailey continued to insist Santa was the one responsible.

“Did
he leave any footprints in the snow?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know. I didn’t notice,” Angela replied.

Jack went to the front door to investigate, only to return a few moments later, his brows furrowed in an expression of contemplation.

“Well, either they came in the middle of the night and the snow covered their tracks, or else it
was
Santa.”

“Of course it was Santa!” Kailey cried.

“The food inside is cold,” Angela said. “So, there’s a chance it’s been sitting outside for some time.”

Jack shook his head. “Well, I guess we should see what’s in those presents.”

Kailey opened first, being the youngest. Eagerly, she tore away the wrapping paper and bow. For a mere half-second she stared at the unwrapped gift in her hands. The next moment she was screaming and dancing around with delight, her curious family members attempting to see the box that she was triumphantly waving in the air.

“Kailey...honey,” Angela shouted, trying to get her attention, “what is it?”

At last Kailey paused long enough to hold up the box for everyone to see. Justin’s mouth nearly hit the floor when he realized that it was a hand-held game console.

“Wow Kailey, that’s quite a gift!” Angela remarked.

“I like it!” Kailey said, her eyes fixed on her package.

Next came Justin’s turn. He was no less disappointed to open his gift and find a stack of new video games for his Xbox. Catherine’s turn yielded a pink MP3 player. A really nice one, according to her.

“Those are all really nice presents, kids. If we ever find out who did this, you’ll owe them a big thank-you.” Angela said.

All three of the children nodded in agreement, with a sort of humble solemnity that showed they truly felt gratitude to their anonymous benefactor. Then Angela turned to Jack. “There’s just one present left,” she said, handing the last gift to her husband.

Jack shook his head, as if he were afraid of what it contained.

“You open it.”

Angela took the gift and gave it a little shake.

“Feels like an empty box,” she joked.

“It’s probably a bill for all of these gifts.”

Angela slowly tore away the wrapping paper from the box, removed the lid, and pulled out a sheet of paper, folded into thirds.

“See, what did I tell you? A bill.” Jack said.

Angela rolled her eyes as she unfolded the paper. As she did so, a smaller piece of paper fell into her lap. She picked it up and looked at it. Her eyes grew wide, as if she had just read something which she couldn’t believe.

“It’s a...check...I think” she said, “for a lot of money!”

“A check! From who?”

Angela looked again at the check. “I don’t know, it doesn’t look like a normal check.”

Jack snatched the check from her and eyed it suspiciously. “It’s a cashier’s check,” he said after a brief inspection. “That
is
a lot of money. Enough to—” His voice trailed off as he looked up at Angela, who was reading the larger sheet of paper.

“Read this,” she said softly. Jack read it aloud.

This should be enough to cover your next house payment and the others, which are outstanding. In the coming months, if you need additional assistance with your mortgage payments, leave a yellow slip of paper on the porch with whatever cookware you are returning. On each slip write a verse of scripture which you have recently read together as a family.

“Is this for real?” Jack said, as he finished reading the letter.

“That check certainly looks real.” Angela said.

“Yeah, but where did it come from? Who’s doing this? Meals are one thing, but this...this is hard to believe.”

“It’s from Santa,” interjected Kailey.

“Of course it is, honey,” Angela said, putting her arm around her daughter. “Why don’t you three go out and play in the snow? Dad and I will be out in a few minutes.”

After the children had left, Angela turned back to Jack. “So, do you not want to accept the money?”

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “I just wish we knew who was doing all this. That’s a lot of money, Angela. Not something to take lightly.”

“I don’t take it lightly.” And even as she said this her eyes began to water. “I believe it’s a blessing from God.” She paused. Her voice was shaking with emotion when she spoke again. “And I’m sure we don’t deserve it.”

“Well I don’t like this. Whoever it’s from, we’re going to owe a lot of money.” Then he shook his head and sighed, as if in defeat. “But, we can’t exactly return a cashier’s check if we don’t know who sent it. And I can’t bear the thought of letting my family get kicked out of our home. If we do ever find out who’s doing this, I don’t know how we’ll ever repay them.”

Angela put her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. “I think we should start by reading the Bible together.”

Eventually, Jack relented to accepting more aid from their anonymous benefactor. Each month, near the end of the month, they marked a little yellow slip of paper with a verse they had read together, and placed it under whatever casserole dish or stew pot they had recently received. True to the letter’s promise, the next time a meal came they found an envelope containing a cashier’s check, made out for exactly the amount they needed for their house payment. And so it went on for a year, until Jack found better employment. Then, as if by magic, the meals and the checks stopped coming. Jack resumed a normal work schedule. Angela quit working as a substitute teacher. Catherine got her treasured cell phone back. All the kids stopped taking the bus to school. On the surface, all seemed to be back to how it had been before Jack lost his job.

But if you looked deeper, you would observe that things were not the same. The Higgins family was not the same family they had been just one year earlier. Never would they forget that Christmas or the inexplicable kindness of an unknown friend or stranger. Even after the checks ceased coming the Higgins family continued to read from the Bible together, always marking their favorites, and thanking God for all they had.