No room at the inn

Bright lights, bright garlands and wreaths. Brightly illuminated and beautiful Christmas trees. Packed shops, mall Santa’s, bustling shops and shoppers. Letters to Santa, TV, internet ads, leaflets and brochures through letterboxes. Yes, Christmas is here. Actually, these signs started as early as the end of summer vacation, if not earlier. Everything depicts the sumptuous time that everyone be having or is it really everyone celebrating and having a great time? Even if you are blind, you could not miss these signs. But for the needy, those without family or friends this is a nightmare season. What do you tell a child that have written to Santa, expecting all these great stuff and all the parent can give is either some candy and a sandwich for the day, and these are the luckier ones.

I watched a movie the other day, in which a reporter was asked to write an article about Christmas from the perspective/experience of the needy/homeless person and she did not know where to start.

From my perspective, for the needy and homeless, this season is all about levels of hopes and dreams. For some, after hoping and dreaming for so long, they give up, have low or zero expectations and often resort to less conventional means. If you live in the western hemisphere, this time of the year is usually very cold and if you are living on or below the poverty level, added to the hunger and inability to pay bills, you are freezing if even you have a home, and all the excitement of the holidays just reminds you of your situation.

This time of the year is usually hard for a lot of people, including people working on minimum wages and the unemployed. And with the extreme commercialization of Christmas, a lot of people are pressured into gift buying, leading to debts, having to buy gifts for loved ones and family members, and there is really no room to think about anyone else.

The reporter in the movie wanted to know how the needy and homeless celebrate Christmas when they have no money. Well, from my real life experience, it’s not that easy, but not that bad either, it all depends on your priorities. For many years, we had what we thought were wonderful Christmases, everything was planned with precision, gifts, drinks, groceries were bought in abundance. We gave to charities, cards to neighbors and gifts to the necessary people, and then the tests and hard times arrived. For a few years, with just one income, we were just able to get just what was necessary for the holidays.

We bought practical and necessary gifts, such as a pair of sneakers to replace the busted ones, hats and gloves to be warm. Then we hit an all time low last year. I had lost my job in July, and with no form of income, but for the kindness of some saints, we would have starved. We started making plans for an alternative Christmas. We were facing eviction as we could not pay our rent, thank GOD for the angel that he sent to help with the rent.

We were able to make minimum payments on the electricity bill and thank GOD that our apartment supplied free heating and hot water, but with our inability to pay our phone/TV/internet bills, we were disconnected. At least we had a radio and my daughter’s cell phone, so we did not lose communication completely and we had bought an artificial tree a couple of years ago, so we decorated that. It was such a joy to turn the lights on daily and watched our tree.

During this time, we never ceased praying, we did not lose hope, we trusted and believed GOD and held on to his word as the word of GOD in Luke 12:24 says “consider the ravens, they neither sow nor reap....” if he feeds them, he will do the same for us. We believed that GOD will provide what we need!!

We watched the neighbors coming home with their boxes of gifts, tons of groceries and Christmas goodies. We listened to people around us talking about their plans for Christmas with their families and friends, then go home, prayed and meditate some more. We actually found joy from the simplest things such as the decorated houses and shops. We listened to K-LOVE radio station and we were ministered to by the songs, and testimonies that we heard from other listeners, artists and staff. We went to church and fellowshipped with other believers.

On the 23^rd of December at the penultimate minute, we were blessed by a couple of women of GOD with a $100.00. Twenty went towards my daughter’s cell phone, ten towards transportation and the rest towards food. We had a ride and did grocery shopping early Christmas Eve, came home and we both went down with the Flu (how ironic), although my daughter was worse than me. I managed to make chicken soup and we were able to eat that with some potatoes and rice.

For the first time ever, we were unable to buy a gift for each other, not even a candy cane, and there was no gift under the tree! But GOD reminded us that that our gift cannot be packaged. He gave us his one and only son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, what more can we ask for! This was so true. We had a roof over heads, we had each other, and we had the Joy and Peace of The Lord. We were Blessed and that’s all that mattered! That's how us as needy/poor people spent our Christmas, as we had hope and we realized that Christmas was all about our Lord Jesus's Birth. He was born for our salvation. now that's worth celebrating!

At this time of the year I give thanks to GOD for all the Saints, Angels and Samaritans out there who are trying their very best to make a difference in the lives of the needy out their, providing hot meals, toys for the kids, festive shoe boxes, accommodations for the homeless to get them to somewhere warm and all the countless things you all do to make life better for others. 

You do make a difference; your efforts are appreciated and have not gone unnoticed. Families out there that would otherwise have not got anything are being Blessed by your efforts and your kindness. GOD Bless you all!!

So let us all be thankful and celebrate the Birth of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST regardless of our individual circumstances!