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Young World
Love came down at Christmas
FABIOLA JACOB
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The children wanted a Christmas tree and Helga wondered how she could get one …
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A long time ago, in a little village in Germany, there lived a poor widow named Helga and her six children. Helga worked at a glass factory in the nearby town of Lauscha. Helga’s wages were just enough to feed her children.
One evening, as Helga was tucking her children in bed, Stefan asked her, “Momma, why is it that we never have a Christmas tree at home?”
“Oh please mother, can we have a Christmas tree this year? All my friends have one, and they get presents too,” said Ada.
Seeing the longing on their faces, Helga’s heart weighed heavy. “Don’t you worry my little ones,” she said.
“We will have a Christmas tree this year, and a grand one too!” Helga couldn’t sleep. How could she manage to get a Christmas tree and decorations, with such meagre earnings? Helga decided to take on additional work. That way she could earn a little more, and may be they could have a Christmas tree this year.
Surprise
A few days before Christmas, she bought a lush green branch of fir from the woodcutter and brought it home. She hid the tree in her larder and decorated it at night after the children went to bed. Working by candle light, Helga made toys and stuffed ornaments and embroidered them. She filled the green branches with home-made ornaments. She bought a beautiful glass angel with wings of silver foil and placed it on the top of the tree. The tree looked perfect, and Helga hid it. According to the German tradition, it had to be revealed only on Christmas Eve.
Helga was busy at the factory, and did not notice the spiders that had started to weave their cobwebs around the green branches. On Christmas Eve, when she uncovered the tree – she was in for a nasty surprise. She saw the ugly strands of cobwebs covering the branches and ornaments in a veil of dull grey. But it was too late, and so Helga brought the tree into the living room, and went to invite the children.
When she returned with the children, Helga saw the cobwebs covering the tree were no longer strands of dull grey, but were gleaming threads of silver that lit up the tree. They stretched from branch to branch, encircling the ornaments in a sparkling embrace. And under the tree were neatly wrapped presents. And there was one for Helga too, with money for clothes and a grand Christmas feast. The children asked no questions that day.
They knew deep within their hearts, that it was the Christ Child, who had blessed their home that was filled with the love of a mother’s selfless heart.
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