Dear Reader:

Changing roles and longtime traditions is always hard. Normally you Chapel of Hope readers would be reading the copy of the Christmas Eve story I told last night on this special post…except I didn’t.

For longtime followers … you already know I told my last Christmas Eve story last year at the early Christmas Eve service. That story ended a thirty year tradition for me at Dorchester Presbyterian church.

I passed the torch to Andi Stem… who quickly volunteered to keep the stories alive each Christmas Eve. Bless you Andi and will be excited hearing the story and song this year… just a little later.

So instead of this annual post containing the story I told… it contains another short story from the book -GOD WINKS- Christmas Stories. This particular story is called ” Christmas Love.”

Candy Chand was rushing to get to her six year old son Nicholas’ final dress rehearsal for the first through sixth graders’ ” Winter Pageant” -because she was a nurse working night shift and would miss the evening performance.

Thinking aloud … she wondered what happened to ” Christmas” pageants. She thought that Jesus and herself shared a common problem… they both suffered from rejection… a lot.

Candy wanted to be a writer-her own mother had been her greatest supporter in this effort but now her mother was gone… and all she had to show for her writings was a box of rejection slips and working night shifts at the local hospital.

As Candy watched the children line up to sing their first song-adorned in red scarves and white mittens she recognized the tune to a song called ” Christmas is Love.” It was one of her favorites and she was so proud of the teacher for including it.

Little did she know that her life was about to change directions. God was about to send her a Godwink. While singing… the little five year old’s were each given a placard to hold – that spelled out the song title: ” CHRISTMAS IS LOVE.” All went well until one little girl held her placard letter upside down. Her ” M” had become a ” W” much to the amusement of the older grades sitting in the audience.

Many teachers tried to shush the laughter to no avail… until the last letter was raised. Then a hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen.

Candy ran home and shared the story on the internet… within hours it was shared by tens of thousands of people around the globe. God was providing the story He wanted told… and shared.

This God Wink story changed Candy’s life as her writing career soared and today she is a successful author.

So until tomorrow… May God’s love envelope you on this most wondrous of days … bringing you comfort, peace… and WARMTH! Merry Christmas to One and All!

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh