It was a cold, first Monday in January, the first school day after Christmas vacation. The kids were lined up at the bus stop. The winter sun had not yet found its way over the top of the mountain. The last place it reached was the trailer park next to the auto salvage yard. It wasn’t a bad place to live. It just had the lowest rents and they asked the fewest questions.

Most of the children were excited to go back to school. Oh sure there were a few sleepy heads and a couple grumblers, but for the most part they were ready to go. As principal I often visited the bus stops. Sometimes to head off snowball fights and squabbles but more often to let the children know I cared about them beyond the school house door.

On this winter morning I was greeted with lots of “Hi’s!” and hugs. I asked the first girl in line how she was and what she got for Christmas. She showed me her new doll. It was coming for show and tell, soon everyone was clamoring to show and tell me what they’d gotten for Christmas. It was a wonderful walk down the line seeing the smiles and hearing the stories.

Then I came to Ramon. He wasn’t a big kid as far as third graders go. He was pretty thin, but faster than a lot of boys on the soccer field. His well-worn, drab, pea green ski jacket looked pretty thin – ask the January cold. His hands were buried deep in his pockets. He seemed to take pleasure in hearing about everyone else’s Christmas. When I came to him I asked, “What did you get for Christmas?”

His dark eyes darted back and forth. He said, “We didn’t have Christmas.” After a pause he added, “We are too poor for Christmas.”

I don’t remember many of the things the rest of the kids said that morning. The bus arrived and whisked them off to school. I was left standing there with his words ringing in my head. “We are too poor for Christmas.”

My first instinct was to ask how could this happen? Where was the school, the service clubs, the church? How did this new family slip through the cracks? I wanted to rush out and buy Ramon and his family Christmas.

I wanted “to buy Christmas.” In those words “I wanted to buy Christmas” I realized that maybe it was I who was “too poor for Christmas.” I was looking for Christmas in a shopping cart. As long as I looked there I’d always be too poor for Christmas. I needed to look in the manger to find Christmas.

Ramon, Christmas isn’t about presents, tinsel, and reindeer. We’ve done that to Christmas. Ramon, we need to again see the real Christmas - the one that doesn’t come in the bottom of a shopping cart. Together lets look in the manger and find Christmas.

Christmas is about God’s gift of love to us. In that gift the poor are made rich. Ramon, Christ is the gift we get at Christmas.

Many years ago in town of Nazareth there was a young girl from a poor family. She was engaged to a man named Joseph. But before they were married, God sent an angel to her. The angel announced to her, “Mary you are going to have a baby. And He will be the Light of the world.”

Mary, and many around her, had been waiting and watching for such a marvelous Light to lead them out of the darkness. Only in this wonderful Light could they find their way.

But how could this be since she was a virgin? The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and you will conceive and bear a Son.”

And Mary answered, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be as you have said.” Though of humble means she was made rich by the favor of God. She wasn’t too poor for Christmas.

In her ninth month Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem to be counted in the census. Being poor no servants accompanied them. When Mary and Joseph arrived they found the town choked with people. All the houses were full to overflowing. They must not have been rich nor influential because the inn would not squeeze them in. The best they could find was a dark, little stable. Not much of a place for the King of Kings to come into the world.

When it was her time to have the baby, he came. She gave birth and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, those are just strips of cloths, not royal robes. She had no crib so she laid him in a manger, a feed box. No relatives were there to help out only cows and sheep resting near by. Poor and alone in the humblest of places God’s promise of Light came into the world.

It is said that it is better to light a single candle than curse the darkness. In that stable burned the little candle that would be for all mankind the Light of the world.

And she gave him the name Jesus.

Though the surroundings were sparse and bare Mary and Joseph sat in the presence of the almighty and everlasting God. Although they didn’t have much money they were rich beyond measure.

And there were near by shepherds in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night. These shepherds were not men of means and money. As shepherds they didn’t sleep in warm beds, wear fancy clothes, or have servants to wait on them. They looked after sheep, which are often stupid and smelly. It was hard and dirty work.

As they listened to sounds of the night there suddenly appeared to them a great light and they were afraid. The angel said to them don’t be afraid, “For I bring you news of great joy, for born to you this day in the city of David, is a Savior and He is Christ the Lord.” The sky was then filled with hundreds and hundreds of angels all singing and praising God. They sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

As suddenly as it began it was over. The shepherd set out to find this child the angels had told them about. In the stable they found Him just as the angel had said. They came in poor and left rich. They left praising and giving glory to God. They went and told others about the child and all that the angels had said.

Though they had humble jobs and little means, God brought them first to the Christ child. They were the heralds of the birth of Christ. They weren’t too poor for Christmas.

Ramon’s Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Even I’m guilty of thinking that. It isn’t about tinsel and wrappings. It isn’t about presents or cookies. It is about the birth of a Savior who came to save us from our sins.

Do I wish for a Christmas with lights and cookies and even a present? Yes, but most of all I wish for you a Christmas with the baby Jesus at the center. I wish for you the heartfelt response to what did you get for Christmas- I got Jesus…We received a Savior. What did you get?…

This year Sabrina is in Bangladesh – half way around the world. The Christmas box Ruth sent back in August never arrived. My daughter was all alone on the other side of the world. But Christmas came on December 15th when Sabrina called and asked me to send her a brief service and a few familiar hymns she knew so she could have her own little church service. Half a world away her faith and her Jesus have become important to her – real to her – sustaining to her. Christmas came to Bangladesh – half a world away. It came without tinsel, presents or wrapping. It came because the Holy Spirit created real and lasting faith. Amen.