Gideon's Gift

by Karen Kingsbury

The red gloves were all that mattered. If living on the streets of Portland was a prison, the red gloves were the key. The key that freed him to relive the life he'd once had. A life he could never have again. When he wore the gloves, he remembered their voices, their touch, and their warmth as they sat with him around the dinner table each night. He remembered their love.

Earl woke the next morning with rain on his face and he felt colder than usual. He cried out, "No!" He had been robbed during the night. His tarp and blanket were gone. But the worse of all so were his beloved red gloves...
Brian Mercer held tightly to Gideon's small hand as they left the hospital. His little girl had great news to share with her mother. She was in remission from leukemia. It was three weeks before Christmas.

On the way home Brian asked Gideon what would be her perfect Christmas. She smiled and said, "We would have a real tree, a tall one that almost touches the ceiling. One with twinkling little lights, decorations and a star on top. A big turkey and a fire truck for Dustin, her little brother. Brian could feel his heart breaking. Gideon's perfect Christmas was the kind all kids expected. But money was tight with doctor bills and a slow economy.

Brian then asked, "Didn't you forget someone? What would you like?"
"A new doll with pretty hair and eyes that blink and a soft lacy dress. A doll never gets sad when you're sick. Sometimes a friend like that would be nice."

They would have a four-foot plastic green tree. Toys would be second hand and maybe missing parts. Dinner would be chicken and mashed potatoes. But they would be grateful. They had more than some people.
Unfortunately they did not have the money for that kind of a doll. It would have to be a second hand doll. Brian felt a little sad that he could not give her the perfect Christmas. Gideon seeing his sad face said, "Daddy, it's just pretend. No big deal." She then asked, "What would be your perfect Christmas?" and he said, "Not having to come back to the hospital again."

Gideon said my teacher told me something special. She said Christmas miracles happen to those who believe. Gideon and her daddy decided to pray for a Christmas miracle.

Right before Gideon got sick, her parents had talked about serving dinner at the mission. She hoped now that since she was better she would be able to go to the mission. She asked her parents if she could serve dinner at the mission and they said yes as long as she didn't get too tired.

They planned to go to the mission the next night. Her dad warned her about the mission that some of the people might look scary. He explained they did not have homes and lived on the streets.

Gideon's heart felt like a wet towel: heavy and full of tears. Then she got an idea. "They probably aren't very happy people. Maybe we can make them smile." Her father smiled and said: "Yes, let's try to get the whole place smiling."

Gideon walked up to Earl, the homeless man, and asked, "Sir, is there anything I can get for you?" He replied that he only got one roll. She slowly walked back to the line and picked up two rolls and brought them back for him.

She asked his name and what would be his perfect Christmas. He only gave her his name, Earl. She told him about her perfect Christmas with a real tree, turkey, and fire truck for her brother and a doll for herself.
For a moment Earl thought back to memories of his family Christmas, but then a burning anger rose up and stopped the memory short. Earl then stared at the little girl and told her to get lost.

The child blinked, but her eyes remained the same. She then told Earl that she and her daddy had prayed for a Christmas miracle. Her teacher had said Christmas miracles happen to those who believe.
Earl then said, "I eat my meals alone, kid."

"Oh," the child pushed her chair back and stood. "I'll leave." There was sorrow in her expression that had not been there before. Something about it gave Earl a pinprick of guilt, like he owed the child an apology. The feeling passed as quickly as it came.

As she turned to leave, the girl tried one last time. "Maybe if you believed, God would give you a Christmas miracle, too."

This time Earl raised his voice. "I don't believe in anything. Now leave me alone!"

Brian had watched what happened from a short distance away. He had to fight back his own anger. What type of miserable man could do that to a child, a child who is only trying to help?

Gideon came back to her Daddy and the mission director and said, "I tried Daddy. But I can't make Earl smile."

The director said, "We have all tried to reach old Earl. He's not a happy man, honey. Believe me. It would take a miracle to make him smile."

Gideon eyes’ lit up and she turned to look for Earl but he had left the mission.

That night Gideon knelt to say her prayers. "Dear God. Hi. It's me, Gideon. Daddy and I asked you for something so big it could be a Christmas miracle. You, see there's a man at the mission named Earl. He's old and mad and he doesn't remember how to smile. Worse than that, he forgot how to believe. God, please help Earl believe again. That's something very big, but I know you can do it. And when you do, it will really be the best Christmas miracle of all."

For the next two weeks, Gideon worked for the neighbors and earned $5.15 so she could buy a Christmas present for Earl. She and her dad went to the second hand store so she could find just the right gift for Earl. Two hours later they left the store with the gift for Earl. With her mother's help they sewed something inside the gift.
Gideon then spent another half hour coloring a picture for Earl. She slipped the gift into a brown paper bag, dropped the picture inside, and tied it shut with a piece of string. She wrote his name on the outside and decorated it with Christmas trees and angels.

The next night they went back to the mission and Gideon carried her gift over to Earl. He stared at the gift. Then the old man turned and said, "I hate Christmas. Didn't I tell you that?"
"Yes." Gideon's eyes were fixed on his. "You told me you didn't believe. But believing is the best gift of all and I thought maybe if I gave you a. . ."

"You thought wrong!" Earl voice boomed across the table.

She leaned forward and clasped her hands on the table. "Aren't you going to open it?"

Earl dropped his gaze. "I'll probably throw it away." Brian's muscles tensed. How dare he? Even from across the room he could see tears building in Gideon's eyes.

"You can't throw it away. It's a Christmas gift I bought for you."

Something in Gideon's voice must have caused the old man to look up. When he saw her sad face, he huffed hard. "Fine." He jerked the chair back from the table and stuffed the sack into his coat pocket and left the mission.

Earl must have passed a dozen trash cans since leaving the mission. Each time he told himself he'd take the kid's bag and throw it out. But each time he couldn't do it. Instead---against every bit of his will-- the gift had come to mean something to him. Maybe it was the child's drawings, the crooked way she'd colored a Christmas tree on the bag, or his name scrawled across the middle.

Somehow it reminded him of the life he used to lead. Without the red gloves, it was over. Dead. There was no hope, no history, no family to conjure up in the cold of the night.

Memories played out before him of his wife, Anne, and their little girl, Molly, the women who had been everything to him. A dozen Christmas Eves during which Anne had wanted only one thing from Earl, to join them at the annual church service.

But Earl wouldn't hear of it. "I won't be a hypocrite, Anne. You know how I feel about church. I wasn't raised that way."

Anne would sigh. "Okay, Earl. She'd plant a kiss on his cheek. But, one of these days, God's going to blow the roof off your safe little box and you won't have any choice but to believe."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the brown bag. He reached inside and felt a piece of paper and unfolded it. It was a picture of an old wooden stable and a manger that glowed like the sun. Scrawled across the bottom of the page were the words: Christmas miracles happen to those who believe. Love Gideon.
Something strange and unfamiliar stirred his soul. Hadn't his daughter Molly drawn a picture like that the Christmas before she and her mother died in an automobile accident? He reached into the sack and felt something soft and pulled it out. He couldn't believe his eyes.

She couldn't possibly have known. Besides how had she found them? They'd been stolen weeks ago. The child had given him a pair of handmade red wool gloves. Gloves that looked exactly the same as those he lost. The gloves his sweet wife Anne had made for him.

Inside the cuff of one of the gloves was stitched a message. Believe.

A sudden downpour of memories overtook him as he buried his face into the red wool. That's exactly what Anne had prayed for all those years ago. God had blown the roof off. Somehow this God he hadn't wanted to believe in had done the one thing that left him no choice but to believe.

God? He opened his eyes and stared toward heaven. No matter that the sky above Portland was flat and utterly dark. In that moment he could see beyond it to a place that wasn't a figment of other people's imagination. It was real, as real as God and miracles and life itself.

The more he felt the gloves the cold layers of his heart melted away. He believed. God is real. The red gloves proved it. No matter how badly he had messed things up, God wasn't finished with him yet. He wanted to live and to make his life good and wonderful and true, something Anne and Molly would be proud of. Earl was smiling.

Because of a child's generosity, Earl was no longer a hopeless street person. He was a believer whose life was about to change.

Christmas miracles really do happen if we believe.

A hundred ideas raced through his mind. Things he wanted to do. Things he needed to do... now that he believed. But there was one thing he had to do before leaving. Tomorrow he would find DJ, the mission director, and ask him about the child. He owed her his life. Her gift had given him more than he could ever repay. But at least he could apologize and certainly he could thank her.

The next morning Earl headed for a gas station where for two dollars a man could shower, shave, and run a clean comb through his hair. He felt like a new man. Then he headed for the mission. DJ did not recognize him. DJ had a dozen questions in his eyes. Earl told him about the girl and the gift of the gloves and what they meant to him. How he believed now. He wanted to find the girl and thank her.

Earl asked DJ how to contact Gideon, the little girl at the mission, to thank her. DJ told him Gideon had leukemia and was back in the hospital again. He also told him that Gideon needed a transplant or she would die. Earl asked how much it cost and was told more than they had, $25,000.

Earl told DJ the story of his life and how he had lost Anne and his daughter Molly in a car accident a few days before Christmas and how this loss had changed his life. He had received a large check from the lawsuit brought against the driver's company and had put the money in the bank and never spent it. To him the two million dollars were blood money.

A wonderful idea came into Earl's mind. DJ helped Earl find clean clothes and shoes. Before lunchtime they set out with two activities in mind: banking and shopping.

At the hospital the doctors told Gideon's parents they could take her home for Christmas Eve, but she would have to back after Christmas for more treatments.

When they opened the door to their apartment, they could not believe their eyes. In the middle of the living room stood a towering Christmas tree laden with twinkling lights and dozens of colorful ornaments. Beneath the tree were wrapped presents piled high. A brand new toy fire track was parked against one wall and leaning against the other were four stockings with gifts and labeled with each of their names.

"Who could have done this?" they all asked. Their little boy answered, "It must have been Santa."

Lined along the kitchen floor were bags of food and inside the fridge they found a large turkey. On the kitchen table was a golden bag with Gideon's name on it. She opened up the bag and inside she found a brand new doll with shiny hair and eyes that open and close in a beautiful dress with tiny lace trim. In the doll’s hand was an envelope.

Brian opened the envelope hoping the person had signed the card. He pulled out a folded piece of paper and opened it to find it was a cashier's check for fifty thousand dollars. "It's a miracle" Brian said to his family. Now Gideon could have the transplant and he felt she would be okay. Another piece of paper fell out of the envelope. On the paper were the words: Dear Gideon, Christmas miracles happen to those who believe.

When Gideon heard the message she gasped, "It's from Earl. Earl at the mission." She had told him the same message at the mission. "God did it, Mommy. He really did it." Gideon sat back in her chair. "This is exactly what I prayed for."

Brian sat down next to Gideon. "A tree, turkey, presents, it is the perfect Christmas."

"No," Gideon looked up. "That's not what I prayed for. I prayed God would do something really amazing, a Christmas miracle. I prayed he would make Earl believe again." Her smile took up most of her face. "And that's just what happened."

Christmas miracles really do happen to those who believe.