Keeping Jesus Warm: A moving Christmas story

Diese Geschichte ist für die Freunde der englischen Sprache, handelt aber in Russland.

Keeping Jesus Warm:

A moving Christmas story

In 1994, an American couple answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics a large orphanage. About 100 boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were in the orphanage.

The teachers relate the following story:

It was nearing the Holy Season 1994. We told the orphans the traditional story of Christmas. Finding no room in the inn, Mary and Joseph went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger. Throughout the story, the children sat in amazement as they listened. Completing the story, we gave the children many things to build their own manger. I walked among them to see if they needed any help. All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat. He looked to be about 6 years old and had finished his project. As I looked at the little boy’s manger, I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. Quickly, I called for the translator to ask the lad why there were two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms, the child began to repeat the story accurately – until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger:

And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, he said, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don’t have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn’t, because I didn’t have a gift to give him like everybody else did. Then I had an idea: ‚If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?‘ And Jesus told me, ‚If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me.‘ So I got into the manger, and then Jesus smiled, looked at me and said I could stay with him—for always.

As little Misha finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed. The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon or abuse him, someone who would stay with him – ALWAYS.

I’ve learned that it’s not WHAT you have in your life, but WHO you have in your life that counts.