When I think of Christmas, I often think of something that happened during my school-teaching days. The school I taught in was very old. It had fourteen-foot ceilings and huge windows. The kids who attended this ghetto school were tough, and they were extremely poor. Maybe that’s how they got to be so tough.

Determined to make it special

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday and I determined that this year I was going to try to make it special for my kids. I got permission from my principal to put a Christmas tree in my classroom. It was a blue spruce. It was twelve feet tall and it must have been eight or ten feet in circumference. I got two of the boys, Jim and Chris, to help me drag it in and build a stand for it. We put it right in the middle of our classroom.

For two or three days, school was going to take a back seat. I asked all 120 kids to each bring one ornament from home. I was surprised at the participation – and the variety. Some were homemade, but many were new and cheap – obviously something they had purchased for the occasion – which meant they probably didn’t have any at home.

How do I teach them kindness?

Even at this time of year, they were ready to fight at the drop of a hat. If somebody put their ornament where somebody else wanted theirs, they would fight. If somebody knocked one off, there was sure to be a fight. If somebody didn’t bring one – or brought two – there was a fight. It was a frustrating time for me, because I wanted Christmas to  bring them together – to teach them kindness – like it’s supposed to.

When the tree was finished, I spent one whole school day, each period, trying to explain about Christmas – what it meant to me and what I thought it ought to be like. I told them that it was against school policy to read the Bible in class, but if they had no objections, I was going to do it anyway. When they found out it was contrary to school policy – they insisted that it must be read.

On Wednesday I read the gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth and I also began reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I could sense that they liked it, although they dared not show it.

On Thursday I continued reading Dickens each period until my voice was nearly gone. Many of them were moved. I could tell. In one class, one of the girls began to cry when it appeared that Tiny Tim was going to die – not loudly, but someone noticed and ridiculed her.

“Hey look, Brenda’s crying.”

“I am not,” she sobbed, “and I’ll smash your face if you say I am.”

That’s when Jim stood up. Jim was big, very big, and he was tough – but he wasn’t mean. He would never sucker-punch a guy and he didn’t go looking for trouble. He was painfully slow of mind, he never answered a question, never took a test, never opened a book, and only when I occasionally departed from the lesson to tell a story did I ever notice a flicker of interest.

Jim loved stories. So when the boy ridiculed Brenda, Jim stood up and grabbed him by the shirt collar. He jerked him out of his seat and held him with his feet about six inches off the floor.

“You shut your filthy, big mouth. Let her cry if she wants to. I might cry myself, and if I do, you’d better start crying, too, or I’ll give you something real personal to cry about. Now, I’m gonna hear the rest of this story, and I mean to hear it without no stops.” (He meant no interruptions).

No more interruptions!

The story went on, and there were no interruptions. I believe they came to love Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchit for the same reason they had loved the story of Jesus’ birth. He was poor and they were poor, and he was oppressed – the underdog – and they saw themselves as oppressed, as always being the underdogs – and they were. For all their toughness, Jesus and Tiny Tim melted them. They never had the chance to be children, and when Tiny Tim recovered and Scrooge was humbled, they laughed and clapped their hands and were very pleased.

I believe it made them kinder and gentler with each other. And why shouldn’t it? It has done so for me and for a million others. We were not so different – them and me – a
few dollars, some social graces, verbal skills and age.

Read the real Christmas story
Learn about the First Christmas and the people involved

The real difference was Jesus.

Do you want to know God and have him heal your life? God wants to meet you right where you are, He loves you, and wants to be in your life.  He wants to heal you and to give you and abundant life.  Why don’t you pray the prayer below and ask Jesus to be Lord over your life?

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to You and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be. Amen.