Happy Birthday Jesus

Happy Birthday, Jesus!
By Penny Hoprich
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Matthew 25:40 “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Excitement was in the air as the children gathered in the clubhouse to put on a little Christmas play for their parents and friends.

When it was time to start, the children put their coats, hats, neck scarves and gloves on and lined up outside the front door of the clubhouse.

Grandpa ushered all the parents and friends into the front room of the clubhouse where the play would be presented. Grandma took her place at the front of the large room. “Welcome to our birthday party for Jesus! The children have really worked hard putting this little program together, and I’m sure you’re as anxious as I am to begin.”

She pretended to be nervous as she looked around the room. “My goodness, you’d think the children would have put up a tree. Mentioning the children, I wonder where in the world they are? You don’t think they’ll be late for Jesus’ birthday party, do you?”

Grandma placed her hand to her ear and exclaimed, “I hear someone coming now." As she opened the door, Robert entered almost in tears.

"Grandma, I’m so sorry. I’ve let everybody down. We all discussed decorating a tree for Jesus’ birthday party, and decided it would be fun to bring the tree in after all our parents arrived. We thought it would be nice to let them help us decorate the tree while Tori served us hot chocolate and finger foods.”

Grandma played along with him. “Well, Robert where is the tree? Grandpa can help you bring it in if you’d like.”

But, Grandma, you don’t understand. There is no tree. Daddy helped me cut the tree down, and he brought it on the back of his truck. We decided to take it off the truck about two blocks from here, and drag it to the clubhouse. You know, so it would look like we had just been in the woods to cut it. But on our way, we saw the widow down the street outside picking up little twigs to try to get a fire going. She looked so cold, we decided to cut the tree up for her so she could have lots of firewood. Grandma, I’m so sorry, but I don’t guess we’ll have a tree for Jesus’ birthday party.”

Before Grandma could say anything, there was a knock at the door. As Grandma opened the door, Miranda came in with her head hung low.

“Grandma, please don’t be disappointed, but I had a bag full of whistles for the party. A birthday party just isn’t a party without lots of cheerful noise. Uncle John was driving me to the party when we noticed a bunch of people walking up and down the road. Some of them were going into the woods. Uncle John said it looked like there was something bad wrong, so he stopped to see if he could help. A little four-year-old child is missing and we left the whistles with the people to use, hoping the child will make his way to the sound of the whistles. Uncle John just dropped me off and he’s gone back to help them.”

As Grandma helped Miranda out of her coat, Phillip walked in the door. “Grandma, I’ve really messed up this time. I had the most beautiful birthday cake for Jesus’ birthday party. On the way here, I noticed a group of homeless people going through a garbage can looking for some food. After I passed them, I felt like I had to go back and give them something to eat. Since I was in such a hurry to get to the party, I just left the cake with them.

As Grandma heard another knock at the door, she stated, “Well, at least we’ll still have hot chocolate and finger foods. That’s probably Tori right now.”

Tori entered the room exclaiming, “Grandma, you’ll never believe what happened!”

"Let me guess,” frowned Grandma. “You gave away our hot chocolate and finger foods.”

“Grandma, have you heard about the lost child? Uncle John went home and brought back his gas grill. Somebody brought some water and a kettle. I gave them the hot chocolate mix and the finger foods. They’ve been searching for hours and I knew they must be hungry,” explained Tori. “Some of them were eating birthday cake that some homeless people had shared with them,” she added.

Shani came bursting through the front door without knocking.

“Shani, where in the world are your coat and gloves? You’ll catch your death of a cold,” exclaimed Grandma.

Shani explained through chattering teeth. “I gave my coat and gloves to Ricky. He’s so little and he was about to freeze. He gave his to a group of people who are looking for a missing child. He thought the little boy would be cold and need them.”

There was a sudden hush in the room. Grandma asked, “Where is that beautiful singing coming from? It sounds like it’s just outside our door.”

As she opened the door, the excitement mounted in the air as Nicole came in leading the carolers. With her was a couple with a child between them, wearing a coat and gloves much too big for him, but he was warm and smiling. Behind them were the homeless people carrying half a cake. Next to enter the room, was the widow from down the street.

As Grandma motioned for the audience to stand, she led them in, “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Jesus, happy birthday to you.”

The End