My First Christmas Back Home
Christmas is around the corner, and with it comes so many memories. Like my first Christmas back home in 1968. I was still rather new to my wheelchair, with my accident having occurred only 18 months earlier. And I was feeling so sad… the reality of quadriplegia had set in and I was already tired of being paralyzed. But on that Friday evening before Christmas, a few friends dropped by my house to bring me some Christmas cheer. They got me out of my wheelchair, transferred me into a friend’s ’65 Camaro, and drove me down to the old Pennsylvania Railway Station in Baltimore City to sing Christmas carols. And in that old, empty building, with its high domed ceiling, our voices echoed beautifully!
That’s when suddenly, a uniformed guard appeared: “Okay, enough of this ruckus… This isn’t a Christmas party or church. You young people need to clear out. We’re closed. Get going! And you…” he said, pointing at my wheelchair, “You put that wheelchair back where you found it, missy!” I gave him a strange look. I said, “Sir, I wish I could get out of it, but I can’t. It’s mine.” The guard got angry. “Don’t sass me. Now you put that wheelchair back!” “Honestly,” I said. “I’m paralyzed!” All of a sudden, he turned red. “Okay, well just get out of here. All of you!”
Oh my goodness, I can’t begin to tell you how hard we laughed that night all the way home. And in between all the laughing, tears filled my eyes. Because in the eyes of a guard in the railway station, I was just a typical, energetic teenager hanging out with her friends. Though I didn’t get physically healed that Christmas of 1968, the joy of the Lord was healing my heart. So today, think of someone who needs some Christmas cheer — and then, give him a call, pay her a visit, or maybe take them out for some Christmas caroling. Psalm 147 says, “Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God… He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” This Christmas, may the joy of our Savior bring you and your loved ones a deeper kind of healing!
