Christmas Lessons

On Christmas Eve we go to my Grandmothers house on my moms side of the family.  It takes a good hour or more to get to her house form here and the girls are never loving the car ride, I think we hear a lot of "are we there yet's" from them even though we make that trip a lot and I am sure they know where they are by what they see out their window.  This time, and I blame it on the holiday that had my mind crazed, but we left the house around 1pm and 1 mile down the road I realized I had yet to feed my kids lunch.  I knew they would be complaining before we got there about how hungry they were and since we wouldn't be eating for another 4-5 hours, I knew I had to stop.  So, we stopped at a grocery store out in town and then hit the road.  The snacks I picked up weren't as big of a hit as I thought they would be and 2 out of 3 girls were passed out within 10 minutes of driving down the road.  I sat with a bag of flavored toasted crackers within my grasp and was not happy.....I am trying to eat better and lose weight, those will not help.  I proceeded to only eat a couple and was pretty happy with myself but kept wondering why on earth I even bothered to get snacks if no one was going to eat them.  This normally does not go through my mind because with 3 kids, I know things will eventually get eaten.  Yet, that thought kept coming to mind.
And then it happened.  We pulled off the freeway at the exit to my Grandmas and there was a homeless man standing there with a sign that read "anything will help".  I knew I didn't have any cash on me and was quickly wondering how I could help.  Not only because I felt compassion for him but for goodness sakes it is Christmas Eve and no matter what has happened in someones lives, they don't deserve to spend that day on the roadside watching happy families who are more fortunate drive by.  That's when I saw the snacks, the snacks that were not getting eaten.  We rolled down our window and he came over.  I told him I was sorry I did not have more but that I hoped that he had a blessed Christmas.  He said that was more than enough and thanked me.  As soon as we started driving off my girls asked me why I did that and I got to explain about giving to others and those who are less fortunate.  I was so happy that on such a blessed holiday, I was able to speak this lesson to my little ones.  And then it hit, not until Christmas night, but it hit me.  I know some of you may not be religious but I believe that God disguises himself as people in our lives and tests us on how we will react.  He can be a poor person on the side of the road or he can be a sales person having a hard day.  You never know but I believe he tests us to see how we handle those situations and how we can be blessing others in our lives.  Now I am not saying I know that God was standing there on the side of the road disguised as a homeless man just to see what I would do.  But what I do know is that I have never been upset that I bought food and that no one was eating it right then and there and that 45 minutes later we got stopped on an exit right next to a man who needed food, that to me is a sign.  We all need to show some compassion to one another.  I don't believe that it can fix the world, there are people out there who would much rather use violence or harsh words instead of kindness, but I do believe that if everyone showed one another kindness and stepped into there shoes every now and again, the world could be a much nicer place.  I pray you were all blessed this Christmas with family, good friends and memories that will last you a lifetime!!!