The Love Bug

By Cheryl Warren Anderson

Christmas was a little challenging as a single mother.

I was living paycheck to paycheck, but I always managed to scrape together enough for some presents for my two kids. We managed to have a wonderful Christmas each year.

One year, probably in about 1996, my son Paul and I had gone Christmas caroling with the young family group at our church. My daughter, Carrie, had gone to a basketball game at the high school with her friends. Since several families had vans, I let her use our old, rickety car and my son and I rode with friends.

We had a wonderful time caroling at the nursing home, then to several homes of elderly individuals in our congregation. We had just arrived back at the church for chili and hot cocoa when I got a phone call from my daughter that the car had died in the middle of the entry into the high school parking lot. Some dads in the group came with me to check out the car. Despite their best efforts, the car wouldn’t start and they pushed it into a parking space, out of the way.

The news was not good. It looked like I was either facing a hefty repair bill or buying a new car. Either option was impossible. I was devastated and in tears as we drove back to the church. In the church basement, I was in the kitchen talking to one of the moms, when my friend Jane came in and said, “Cheryl, you need to go talk to Mark. Now.”

This seemed a bit odd, but I figured that Mark was probably a good person to talk this over with, as he was a kind Christian dad and husband with an unbelievable faith and knowledge of the Bible. Jane took my hand and led me up the basement stairs to the church entryway.

Mark was smiling, and said, “We’ve had a little project in the works for a while now. We were going to save this for Christmas, but it needs to be now.” He opened the door and pointed to a burgundy-colored car parked by the front door.

“That is your new car,” he said.

I broke into tears as he revealed the story. He had been concerned about my old car and knew with the problems I’d been having that the old junker was on its last leg. When a friend of his asked if Mark knew anyone who needed a good, used car, Mark immediately thought of me. I believe several people in the church went together and paid for the car, but it was Mark who brought it back to his farm and went over it with a fine tooth comb to make sure it was safe, good vehicle for us.

The car was not new. In fact, it was only a couple years newer than my old car. But it was in far better shape, had fewer miles, and had been taken good care of.

Although the car was a Buick, not a Volkswagen, it was always referred to as “The Love Bug,” since it was the love of our friends that brought it to us. I made sure to sit my kids down and make sure they understood how God knew our need, and had set the plans in motion for our friends to help weeks before the problem arose. A Christmas blessing indeed!