Early in my ministry when we had very little at Christmas time. We worried about what we would do for our small son for Christmas. It turned out to be one of the greatest Christmas memories of our lives.

Christmas was coming, our son was two
My schooling I still had to pursue
Church salary allowed us to subsist
Without money for a Christmas list
We opened a Christmas card and then
We saw that it contained a ten.
Our son looked for cheap little things
The kind that good old Santa Claus brings
Secretly, the one gift that he chose
Was purchased right under his nose
It was lovingly wrapped and put away
Until that happy Christmas day
Our poster board crèche in the window stood
Because we couldn’t afford one of wood
The other decorations around
Were from Christmas cards with colors so loud
When the Church Christmas program was done
Some members came to our house on the run
And brought the lovely church Christmas tree
And set it up for my family and me
When Christmas morning came that year
Our lives enjoyed the greatest cheer
Under that Christmas tree one gift was there
All our son could do was sit and stare
Santa had been there through the night
And left his gift and it was just right
It was like the one he saw at the store
So quickly the paper wrapping he tore
And took that gift and started to play
While my wife and I could only pray
And thank God for those who had cared
And gently with us their Christmas shared
As years passed and our family grew
My church salary increased too
Decorations increased in size
As the pile of gifts began to rise
But of all the Christmases we’ve had
Nothing has made us as nearly glad
As that present under that given tree
If you’d been there, I know you’d agree