A Christmas Passage

by Mia Rodriguez

"What does forever mean? Describe it."

  "It's . . . uh . . . just forever."

  "Have you been to the beach?"

  "Yeah."

  "Life on earth is like one sole grain of sand. Eternity is kind of like all the sand on the beach except even more than that."

  "What does that have to do with anything?" Snowy asked.

  "It has everything to do with anything."

  Snowy shook her head, frustrated. "I just don't understand."

  Chapter 11

  Snowy was hoping that she wouldn't see anything worse than what she had already seen. But the world hit her. Earth was full of problems. Everything became a blur to her that she didn't want to see.

  Abuse . . . Yelling . . . Screaming . . . Hitting . . . "I hate you. You're worthless." . . . Poverty . . . Hunger . . . "Please, Santa, won't you give us food this Christmas? We're so hungry." . . . Racism . . . Discrimination. . . "You're not good enough. You're not like us." . . . Disease . . . Illness . . . "I'm hurting outside and inside too. Why won't the other kids play with me?" . . . Wars . . . Tornados . . . Earthquakes . . . Floods . . ."Why us?" . . . Despair. . . Suicide . . . "I'm nothing. Nobody cares." . . . and so on and so on . . .

  "I want to go home!" Snowy exclaimed.

  "No," Alma Aurora simply said.

  Snowy was ashamed that she was crying like a baby. "I'm too young to see all of this."

  "If those kids are not too young to go through it, then you're not too young to see it."

  "Let's go home," I pleaded.

  "You want to go home and forget what you've seen tonight. If you forget those kids, they'll be invisible, and you've lost an education."

  "An education?" Snowy asked.

  "The school of the world tells you that life isn't only about you, Snowy."

  "Then what is it about?" Snowy questioned angrily. "About all the horrible things out there?"

  "Is that all you've seen, Snowy?" Alma Aurora asked, disappointed.

  "Well . . . yes."

  "You didn't see love, kindness, togetherness, and compassion. You didn't see all the goodness Jesus brought with his birth??"

  "I . . . I . . ."

  "Sadness, glittering lights, toys--was that all you saw out there?" Alma Aurora questioned with tearful eyes. "Snowy, you're missing Christmas. Your grandfather is going to be very disappointed."

  "I'm missing Christmas?" Snowy murmured.

  "We've only got one more house to go, Snowy. Let's go."

  It was quiet in the sleigh. Snowy was a little upset that Alma Aurora had left her alone with her thoughts. Why had the angel given her words that were impossible to ignore?

  Chapter 12

  Snowy should've disliked the house because normally she liked everything ultra modern, but there was something very warm about the old home. A large Christmas tree sat by the window in the living room. It was so huge that it took up a large area of it. The many handmade decorations reminded Snowy of the tree in her own house. She had never thought she would miss it, but she sure missed her home and her family.

  There was another time she had missed them, but she hadn't admitted it then. Her parents had given her the choice of going to Disneyland or Camp Alaska. She could tell they had wanted her to choose Disneyland.

  "What's in Disneyland?" Snowy had asked.

  "Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Cinderella--"

  "I have enough with reindeer and elves. I hate to think about having to put up with the likes of Mickey and Donald."

  "There are a lot of fun rides in Disneyland, Snowy."

  "Really?" Snowy had asked excitedly. "Like speeding sports cars, high elevators, and fast freeways?"

  "No, Snowy. Like take the Peter Pan Ride for example. You get on it, and it's as if you're flying above a city at night."

  Snowy was disappointed. "Like being on gramps's sleigh?"

  Snowy ended up going to Camp Alaska instead. She enjoyed the much warmer temperature than the one in the North Pole. She also liked that she didn't have to worry about any icicles stuck in her hair that were impossible to comb out.

  What she hadn't liked was when the other kids had found out she was Santa's granddaughter. They had wanted to give her their Christmas lists. Some children even wanted to sit on her lap.

  "Don't even think about it!" Snowy had exclaimed. "I'm not Santa!"

  "You've got that right," one girl had sneered. "Santa is nice. You're mean."

  Snowy stuck her tongue out at her. "I'll remember that next Christmas when I'm helping gramps with the gift distribution list!"

  Snowy had missed her parents that time in Camp Alaska. Snowy sighed as she remembered that occasion. Alma Aurora repeated that this would be the last house, and Snowy was relieved that she would soon be home.

  As the life screen appeared before Snowy and Alma Aurora, it started playing. There were about ten kids in a kitchen.

  "I thought the Brady Bunch was big!" Snowy exclaimed.

  "Those kids are adopted," commented Alma Aurora. She told Snowy to look closer at the children. Snowy realized that all of them were physically challenged in some way. Yet, they were all expected to help with chores in some way. Also, all of them had made at least one decoration for the tree.

  At first, Snowy thought the Kings, their adopted parents, expected too much from them. She soon realized that if the kids didn't pick up after themselves, Juan, who was blind would trip. If Sandra didn't sing to baby Willis, who was mute, he wouldn't go to sleep. Jaime would push Isaiah's wheelchair when they were outside and the road was rocky.

  At night, they and their parents would study other cultures. The kids would also help one another with homework.

  "They need each other, don't they?" Snowy asked Alma Aurora.

  Alma Aurora smiled. "They're smart enough to realize it."

  The next scene showed the children playing outside. Three older kids came near them.

  "Oh no!" Snowy exclaimed. "It's those awful kids we visited earlier."

  "What happened to your hand, Donny?" one of the troublemakers sneered at the child with a stump for a hand. "Did a shark eat it?"

  Sandra, who was next to Donny, turned angrily at the troublemaker. "At least it only ate his hand. It looks like the shark ate your brain!"

  The three troublemaker kids started going towards her, but the King children moved close to each other and stood side by side like soldiers.

  The head troublemaker snapped, "We can take cripples."

  "Just try," announced Sandra.

  The three kids stared at them, but the King clan wouldn't drop their determined gazes.

  "Let's go," the head troublemaker said. "It would be too easy to beat up cripples."

  Turning around, he and his companions walked away.

  "We're not the ones who are crippled!" yelled Juan.

  Meanwhile, Donny stared at his stump with a pained expression.

  "Don't feel bad about what he said, Donny," Sandra declared. "Hands only get in the way." Sandra wiggled her right hand and then slapped herself. Donny laughed as did the other children.

  "Good thing I gave those horrible kids empty boxes when we were in their homes," Snowy commented.

  Alma Aurora smiled. "I like what you inserted, 'This is what you'll get in life unless you learn to be nice.' You've got a talent for this, Snowy. That's also why I wouldn't let you quit and go home."

  "I just don't understand how people can be so cruel."

  "Look," Alma Aurora said, pointing at the screen.

  The King children were in a circle looking at Sandra who was next to Donny.

  "What are they doing?" Snowy asked.

  "Listen."

  Sandra started singing Silent Night. She didn't have the most sophisticated and melodic voice Snowy had ever hear, but there was something very wonderful about it. The rest of the children joined her. It didn't sound like a perfect choir where everyone knew exactly which note to hit, but it was s
till radiantly beautiful like snow. Snowy's mother had once said that snow flakes dropped from the sky, not knowing where to land, but making a beautiful blanket accidentally.

  Snowy filled the Kings gift boxes with various toys the children wanted. The one Snowy was having a problem with was Sandra's present.

  "What's wrong?" asked Alma Aurora.

  "Sandra wants one of those huge church organs."

  "So?"

  "I don't think the elves make those," Snowy declared.

  "I'm sure they can make anything."

  "It's too big. Maybe a keyboard will be okay."

  "A keyboard is totally different from an organ."

  "I don't think I can do it," Snowy murmured.

  "I don't know why you're losing your confidence," Alma Aurora commented. "Remember how you got the Christmas tree for Mando?"

  "That was different. We're talking about a really huge thing this time. I can't do it. It's impossible."

  Snowy felt bad that her limitations would prevent Sandra from her dream of having a church organ. Sandra thought it sounded closest to the music she heard in her head, and the sounds she heard from the other children.

  "Aren't you even going to try?" asked Alma Aurora.

  Snowy sighed. "Okay, I'll give it a try."

  "With that attitude, you won't be able to do it."

  "But--"

  "Clear your mind of negativity and then do it."

  Snowy put her hands on the wall space where she thought the church organ should go and closed her eyes. After a while, she opened them again.

  "It's not working."

  "Believe, Snowy."

  Snowy shut her eyes again and repeated, "I believe. I believe."

  "Clear the negative and believe, Snowy."

  "I believe. I believe."

  "You're already seen miracles tonight. Maybe not all easy miracles but miracles nonetheless. Don't doubt them. Just keep believing."

  "I believe." Believe. BELIEVE. BELIEVE, she kept repeating to herself.

  Suddenly, Snowy felt a movement. When she opened her eyes, the church organ was next to her.

  "Wow! Those elves can really build one! Who would've thought?!"

  Snowy and Alma Aurora stared at it for a few seconds. Finally, Snowy asked Alma Aurora about the spiritual gift she would give them.

  "Dreams."

  "Dreams of themselves without their disabilities?"

  "No, Snowy. There's not such thing as a human being without some sort of a handicap. Their gift will be dreams of flowers, oceans, the moon, sunshine, and love. They'll see that even if those horribly misguided kids don't welcome them into their world, they are really part of everything in a universe that embraces them with open arms. They've not only got a place in this happy home but also a place at the core of everything."

  Chapter 13

  Wow--What a night! thought Snowy as she and Alma Aurora returned to the sleigh. Snowy was so overwhelmed as they started making it back to the North Pole that she could hardly speak.

  She had never actually realized the importance of her grandfather's work. She had never fully appreciated the contribution of angels. She had never thought about what God experienced every day.

  There were so many children in this world. They were going through so many things.

  Christmas.

  It was much, much more than she had ever imagined. If truth be told, she may have been Santa's granddaughter, but she had never really understood Christmas until tonight.

  Chapter 14

  When the sleigh arrived at Santa's front yard, the new day was awakening. Snowy stared at the splashes of bright orange with glimmering sunlight peeking through the sky.

  The elves and other creatures started to run away when they saw Snowy.

  "Don't go," she pleaded. "I won't make fun of your ears. I won't call you Spock's mini children. I won't put butter and green slime on your toy making tools. I won't cut off the points of your pointy elf shoes. I'll invite you to tea and this time, it won't be crunchy. I'll give you sugar instead of sand."

  The elves still kept running away from Snowy. "They just don't like me," Snowy told Alma Aurora with sadness.

  "Give them time."

  "Okay," Snowy sighed.

  "Snowy, did you really do all that stuff?"

  "Well . . . kind of . . . I mean, you've got to understand that I was a different person then."

  Snowy's grandparents and parents realized she was home and rushed out of the house.

  "Did you get into any trouble tonight," Snowy's mother asked, worried.

  "Snowy did fine," answered Alma Aurora.

  "She did?" asked Santa with a relieved smile. "What did you learn, Snowbella?" he asked.

  Everyone stared intently at Snowy. She looked at the incandescent sun rays reaching towards her. This time she recognized a spiritual gift when she saw one.

  "I learned that it's all about giving and receiving."

  "Giving and receiving toys?" asked Santa.

  "No, not that."

  "Then what?" Santa questioned.

  "Love," Snowy said without a speck of sarcasm in her voice. "Love."

  Santa was so thrilled with her answer that he started ho hoing. Everyone applauded. Alma Aurora nodded her head.

  Snowy grinned. "I didn't miss Christmas after all, did I?"

  "No, you most definitely didn't," replied Alma Aurora.

  "I'm so proud of you, Snowbella," Santa gushed, tears in his eyes.

  "I love you, gramps even if you really need a shave."

  "Snowbella!"

  "I'm just kidding," Snowy declared. "I love you just the way you are. Happy Christmas, Santa."

  "Merry Christmas, everyone!" Santa started bellowing. "Merry Christmas!"

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