The One Thing We All Have

I greeted the older gentleman as I extended the gift from our church group. “Hello there! We brought you a little something for Christmas.”

The resident scowled at me and ignored the offering in my hand. “I can’t sleep with all this singing,” he grumbled. I smiled and made another effort at conversation that was dismissed as quickly as the first. The only thing he seemed interested in was my exit, so after apologizing for our merry band of carolers, I rejoined the well-meaning offenders. We continued making our way down the hall of our local nursing home, leaving greetings, hugs, and goodies in our wake.

“Come in!” she called out in a weak voice. Inside the sparsely decorated room I found a small, drawn body lying perfectly still in a jumble of bed sheets. I don’t know if she could still move on her own, but she didn’t. As I came into her line of vision, her eyes locked on mine and her face lit up as if seeing a long lost friend. “Merry Christmas,” we said almost simultaneously. I honestly don’t remember what I said after that because I was so touched by what she did next. “Thank you, honey,” she said, “and I wish y’all a blessed and healthy New Year.”

Granted, I have no idea what life has dealt either of the residents mentioned here but I remain intrigued by how quick she was to speak a blessing over the same people the older fellow considered an interruption at best. In his famous best-selling book, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Victor Frankel, noted Austrian author, neurologist, psychiatrist, and survivor of the brutal concentration camps of the Holocaust writes that every thing can be taken from a man or a woman but the freedom to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances. This is the great gift of God. I challenge myself anew to choose well. How about you?