Jimmy lay on his bed crying. They were not the usual tears of a ten year old boy. They were not tears because he had been scolded. They were not tears because he did not get his way, or because his sister had once again gone too far with her teasing ways. They were not even tears flowing from some selfish motive or thought.
These were heartfelt tears; tears for his best friend Nate. They were tears born of fear, coming from a young heart so desperately praying that Jesus really was a real person. They were tears formed as Jimmy lay in bed, praying for Nate, who also lay in a bed on the other side of town. Nate’s bed was in the intensive care unit of their town’s local hospital. Jimmy was old enough to know that the intensive care unit was for those hospital patients who were seriously ill or injured.
Just last evening Jimmy ant Nate had been together working a paper route they had two years earlier decided to share. Jimmy and Nate were very close friends; they did everything together. No one would ever be as good a friend as Nate. Even their birthdays were on the same date, only just exactly one month apart. Jimmy was born on March 3rd; Nate was born on April 3rd the same year.
Both were 10 years old, though Jimmy would always remind Nate that he was the older one. “Exactly one month older,” he would often say. This never bothered Nate because he knew Jimmy was only teasing him. Besides, Nate was always willing to give in to Jimmy’s desires. If there was ever disagreement on what to do or how to do it, Nate was not bothered to let Jimmy have the final say.
Only once did Nate not give in to Jimmy, and that was the summer when both Jimmy and Nate were eight, when Jimmy had somehow gotten hold of a pack of cigarettes. With all the secretiveness of a spy mission he had talked Nate into going to the park so he could reveal to Nate something new he wanted both of them to try.
When they got to the park that summer afternoon, Jimmy pulled out the package of cigarettes. It was a brand new, never been opened, pack. As he opened it both boys could distinctly smell the pungent odor of the cigarette tobacco. Almost indescribable to a boy their age, the odor was both sweet and foul at the same time. Jimmy had attempted to remove one of the cigarettes and succeeded in spilling at least half of them on the ground, where they looked like a bunch of short white pickup sticks.
Jimmy carefully picked one up, as he simultaneously reached into his other pocket and pulled out a book of matches he stole off his parent’s fireplace. As Jimmy opened the matchbook, he told Nate to go ahead and pick up one of the cigarettes. “We can both try one at the same time,” he had said. However, Jimmy was visibly shocked at Nate’s response. It was not so much his response as it was the firmness at which Nate stood his ground. Nate said he was not about to smoke a cigarette with him, or anybody else.
“Why?” Jimmy had asked, “Nobody’s ever going to know. Don’t you want to just see what it feels like to smoke?” Again Nate had almost angrily, “No!” “It’s wrong Jimmy. It’s wrong because it’s against the law, but it is also wrong because I know that God does not want me to smoke.” This was a little too much for Jimmy. “God? What’s God got to do with it? It’s just one cigarette Nate!” But Nate had stood firm, and refused to participate. Jimmy had never forgotten that day. Many times since then Nate had brought up the subject of God and Jesus, and the fact of sin, and being forgiven for your sin.
Nate had never been pushy about God. But it was very clear to Jimmy that Nate would never do anything he knew to be wrong. Jimmy had always been able to talk Nate into doing things his way, and for the most part still was, but he somehow knew it would not work to try to talk Nate into doing something wrong. So he never again did.
As often as Nate talked about God and church, though, Jimmy never showed any particular interest in either one. Oh, there were a few times, maybe five or six, when he went to church with Nate. But that was only because Nate was his best friend. He guessed he could suffer through church every one in a while, if that made Nate happy; but not too often. He figured as long as Nate was happy believing in God, that was fine, but he was not going to waste all of his Sundays going to church. Once in a while was enough he reasoned.
***
But as Jimmy lay in his bed crying tonight, he felt he had nowhere to turn but to the God that Nate seemed to love so much. Actually, he had turned to God yesterday, after Nate had been taken to the hospital. He and Nate were on their paper route, a normal routine for them where they usually walked together. Theirs was a route that would probably take only thirty minutes for any other two, but it usually took the two of them no less than an hour. They spent much of their time on the route talking and playing. It was a good time for them, and no one, not even their parents, seemed to mind that they were so slow.
Last night,however, started tragically different. The papers came late, and of all nights, they both had to be at school later that evening for the school Christmas play. So Jimmy suggested that they split the papers. He would take one side of the route, and Nate would take the other side. “As a matter of fact,” Jimmy had said, “we can race. The last one to the Quik-Way store at the end of the route will have to fold all the papers for the next week.” “All right,” Nate had said, and they were off.
Jimmy had chosen the side of the route where the Quik-Way was on his side at the end. This meant that Nate would have to finish his side, and then run across the street to make it to the store in order to win the race. An unfair advantage for Jimmy, but as usual Nate agreed to the terms of the race.
All along the paper route, as they ran from one house to the next, they would keep looking across the street to see how the other was doing. Occasionally they would yell something to each other as they ran between houses, like, “I’m sure looking forward to not folding papers all week!” To which the other would reply, “You got that right. I’m gonna sit back and watch TV while you’re folding!” Throughout the route they remained neck and neck.
All of a sudden their light mood changed drastically. As they both simultaneously reached the last house on their side, Jimmy started running straight ahead toward the Quik-Way. As he ran, he looked over to see Nate run from his last house heading toward the street to cross over to the store. At the same time Jimmy noticed a car coming down the street, moving faster than most cars do in that area. Immediately Jimmy sensed that the worsts was about to happen.
He looked back at Nate and yelled, “Nate! Stop!!” But it was too late. He saw Nate look at him when he yelled. Then he watched, seemingly in slow motion, as Nate look toward the fast moving car headed straight at him. At the same time Jimmy heard the car’s brakes cause its tires to screech hideously on the pavement. Then, as if watching a horror movie, he saw Nate’s eyes open wide with fear as, at the same instant, the car hit him. Jimmy saw his friend fly over the hood of the car, and land in the bushes lining the house across the street.
The next moments and events were a blur to Jimmy. For what seemed like forever, he stood there. All in one moment’s time he had watched the car as it hit Nate, then saw his body turn limp as he flew through the air, and hearing Nate make an awful grunting sound as he landed in the bushes. Jimmy couldn’t move, as fear totally paralyzed him.
The next thing he heard was the siren of the ambulance as it pulled up next to where Nate’s body lay. As he came to his senses he realized he was standing close to Jimmy. He watched the EMTs as they place Nate on a stretcher, and move him toward the ambulance. He then noticed that somehow both Nate’s parents and his parents were there. Nate’s mom was allowed to ride in the ambulance as they headed across town to the hospital. He heard Nate’s dad tell his mom that he would follow the ambulance in their car.
Jimmy’s mom and dad, seeing how upset he was, told him they would take him to the hospital. But he was not able to see Nate that evening. Instead a doctor convinced Jimmy’s mom to give him some medicine, and soon after he felt himself get very sleepy. The next thing he knew, he was waking up in his own bed, and the sun was shining through his bedroom window. It was the next morning.
***
It all seemed like a bad dream to him; a nightmare. As he got out of bed, and placed his feet on the floor, he wasn’t entirely sure that it wasn’t anything but a bad dream. He was hoping with all his heart that it was just a dream. But, as he entered the kitchen he knew something was very wrong. As soon as his mother saw him she quickly stepped over to hug him. Jimmy saw she had been crying, and she immediately asked him how he was, if he slept well, if he still felt sick. Question after question, as she hugged him tighter than she ever had before.
“Did it really happen, mom?” Jimmy asked with fear in his voice. “Nate is okay, isn’t he?” he hopefully asked.
Jimmy’s mom took him by the hand, and led him into the living room, where they both sat on the couch. “Jimmy, it really did happen. Nate was hit by a car last night. He’s in the hospital right now; in intensive care.” She lovingly put her hand on his head, and gently stroked his hair, as she continued. “He’s not doing very well. He had a lot of internal bleeding, and the doctor says it seemed as though every bone in his body was broken.”
Jimmy was not sure exactly what all his mom said meant. He just knew Nate was in the hospital, and he disparately wanted to see him. “Can I go see him, mom?” he asked in a tearful voice.” The reality of last night begin to overwhelm him. “I need to go see him. He needs me to be there with him.”
“Yes, Jimmy,” his mom answered. “We’ll go to the hospital this morning. His mom and dad are there right now, and they have requested that you come be with them, if I thought you could handle it.”
“I can handle it, mom! I need to be there for Nate!” Jimmy squealed in a voice that revealed both his concern and fear.
His mom replied, “I know you can handle it Jimmy. So you need to get yourself cleaned up, and ready to go. I want you to have some toast too, before we leave the house. You need something in your stomach.”
When they reached the hospital room where Nate lay in a coma, Nate’s mom and dad were standing in the hallway talking to the doctor. When Nate’s mom saw Jimmy she immediately took Jimmy in her arms. Nate’s dad looked over asked how he was doing. They seemed as concerned about him as they were about their own son, Nate.
Eventually Jimmy was able to ask them how Nate was doing. “Not too well,” was Nate’s father’s reply. “The doctor is concerned that his internal injuries have caused a lot of damage, but they are also worried about all his broken bones.
“Can I see him?” asked Jimmy.
“We were hoping you would want to,” said Nate’s mother, “I think he needs to know you are here for him. But be prepared, Jimmy, he doesn’t look so good.”
Jimmy couldn’t believe what he saw when he approached Nate’s bed. Nate was almost completely covered with gauze and bandages. What was not covered was so swollen that it didn’t even look like Nate. As a matter of fact, Jimmy’s first reaction was a kind of hope that this wasn’t Nate, and that Nate was really at home and all right.
But he knew it really was Nate. And, at that realization, Jimmy began to cry, and ran out of the room. Nate’s parents followed him, as Jimmy’s parents came rushing to him from the waiting room down the hall.
“It’s alright Jimmy,” said Nate’s mom. “We should not have let you go in there.”
“Oh, mom,” Jimmy moaned through his tears, “I know he hurts so badly, and I can’t even stay in there with him.” Jimmy was beginning to feel the guilt that would haunt him for the next few days. Guilt that this was all his fault. If only he hadn’t made a race of it. If only he had taken the other side of the street, and let Nate take the side with the store at the end. Guilt also because he was not brave enough to stay with Nate.
As they walked down the hall to leave the hospital Nate’s father put his hand on Jimmy’s shoulder, stopping him. He crouched down in front of Jimmy and took him in his arms. “Jimmy,” he said, “Nate is a good boy, and so are you. We just have to leave him in God’s hands now. We all need to pray that God will take care of Jimmy. When you get home today, why don’t you just pray for Jimmy whenever you think of him.”
And that is what Jimmy did. At first he could not bring himself to talk to someone or something he could not see or feel. Just the thought of it somehow made him feel foolish. But, as the day went by, and thought of Nate brought more and more tears, he began talking to God out of desperation.
“God,” Jimmy prayed, “I hope you are real, because Nate sure needs you right now.”
***
Throughout the day, and into that night Jimmy prayed to God. The next morning, Sunday, his mom came into his room and woke Jimmy up. She had never before woke him up on Sunday morning. She would always let him sleep in. But today was going to be a different day for Jimmy in many ways.
“Jimmy,” his mom said as she brushed his hair back from his eyes. “Nate’s parents called, and they want to know if you would like to go to church with them today. Nate’s father said the church people are going to have a special prayer service for Nate, and he thought we would all like to be there. Why don’t you get up, take a shower, and we will all go to church this morning.”
Jimmy did not even hesitate. He had prayed all night to God, and was beginning to believe that He was real. He got up, and was ready to go by the time his father got their car out of the garage.
At the church Nate’s mom and dad asked Jimmy and his family to sit with their family. They sat near the front of the church. Before the minister began the service Nate’s parents had time to talk to Jimmy’s parents. Jimmy was able to overhear much of what was said.
“It doesn’t look too good for Nate,” his father told Jimmy’s parents. “The doctors say he just had too many internal injuries. We are here today to pray for Nate, but also to pray for his friends and family; like Jimmy here. We know Nate would want it to be that way.”
Nate could not believe what he was hearing. But, more unfathomable to him, was his reaction to this terrible news. Somehow a feeling of calm came over him. It was a feeling that everything was going to be all right. He suddenly realized he knew that even if Nate died he would be able to make it. Even so, he began to cry.
The next thing he heard was the minister, who say saying, “Nate loves the Lord; we all know that. He came to this very altar about three years ago, and gave his life to Jesus. Ever since that day Nate has been a boy who loved to live for Jesus.”
***
Jimmy listened as the preacher told stories about Nate’s love of Jesus, and compared them to stories in the Bible about those who loved the Lord. Each story about Nate reminded Jimmy of some event in their friendship. He remembered the time when Nate talked him into going with him to sit and talk with this old guy on their paper route. Jimmy had not wanted to go, but Nate was so insistent that Jimmy gave in. But he did not want to let Nate know he gave in, so he came up with the idea of taking one of the cakes Nate’s mom just took out of the oven.
Jimmy remembered that day very well. He remembered wondering why Nate’s mom had baked two cakes. Then it suddenly hit him. Nate had planned to take that cake anyway, but he went along and let Jimmy take the credit for thinking of it. The more he listened to the preacher, the more Jimmy realized that much of the time, when it appeared as though Jimmy was always getting his way, it was really Nate who was always the happy one.
Nate was always willing to do what Jimmy wanted to do because he wanted to see Jimmy happy. Not because Jimmy was their leader, nor because Jimmy had the stronger personality of the two. It was because Nate was not always thinking of himself first. As the preacher was pointing out, Christians always think of others first. Nate was always thinking of Jimmy’s feelings. No wonder he was always so happy!
As the sermon ended, Jimmy heard the pastor ask if anyone wanted what Nate had. “What does he mean by that,” Nate thought. As if to answer his question, the pastor said, “If anyone would like to know Jesus the way Nate knows Jesus, I ask you to come down here to the altar right now.” “Here at the altar,” the pastor explained, “if you ask God to forgive you of your sins, and believe that he does, and that he loves you enough to forgive you, then you too can have the same kind of joy and happiness you always see in Nate.”
Nate looked up at his dad, and saw tears in his eyes. His dad never cried, but he was at this moment. He saw that his mom was crying too, but that wasn’t all that unusual. He then looked up at Nate’s dad, who was looking back at him. Nate’s dad spoke first. “You know Jimmy,” he said, “next Sunday is Christmas, and Nate told me just the other day that the greatest Christmas present he could ever hope to get would be to see his best friend Jimmy find the Lord.”
“What do you mean, ‘find the lord’?” Jimmy asked, as his tears again began to flow down his cheeks.
“Well, it’s just like pastor Williams just said Jimmy if you want the same joy Nate has, then all you need to do is go to the altar, or stand right here, and ask God to forgive you of your sins and then ask Him to come into your life. Would you like to do that?”
“I want what Nate has, but I don’t know what to do,” Jimmy whimpered.
“How about I go to the altar with you and we’ll do this together,” offered Nate’s dad.
Nate’s dad took Jimmy’s hand and waited for Jimmy to make the first move. Jimmy looked up at him, and with Nate’s dad in tow, he headed for the altar. His mom and dad were not too far behind.
***
Later that afternoon, Nate’s father knelt by Nate’s hospital bed. As he held the hand of his motionless, almost lifeless son, he prayed:
“Lord, two thousand years ago you sent your son, and here we are in another Christmas season to celebrate that event. I know Jesus came so that he might die on the cross so that we could be saved from our sins. Today Nate’s best friend, Jimmy, found the Lord. It took this terrible accident to bring him there. I can see now how much it must have hurt you to see your son sacrificed so that others would know eternal life. I can now better understand that you must love us a great deal to make that sacrifice. I pray you will be with me and Nate’s mom as we accept that it was through Nate’s accident that Jimmy was able to find your eternal life.”
From the hospital bed, a weak voice said, “I got my Christmas gift didn’t I.”
Nate’s father looked up in astonishment as he heard the muffled and mumbling voice. He was sure he heard the voice, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up. He got off his knees and leaned over his son’s bed.
Just then Nate’s eyes opened and he smiled at his father. He whispered, “I got my Christmas wish dad. I heard you praying; Jimmy found the Lord, didn’t he.”
Nate’s dad started to hug his son in excitement until Nate moaned as he touched him. He immediately let go and said, “I’m sorry son, I guess I just wanted to hug a miracle! Yes, Jimmy did find the Lord today. I guess you did get your Christmas wish!”
***
It took a long time for Nate to completely heal from all his injuries. He and Jimmy are still best friends. They continued to do the paper route together, and Jimmy still reminds Nate that he is exactly one month older. But now there is a much stronger bond in their friendship. They are able to talk about Jesus, church, and doing the right thing, and Jimmy doesn’t even feel foolish talking about them.
Christmas has taken on a whole new meaning in Jimmy’s home. His mom and dad asked Jesus into their hearts that same Sunday that Jimmy found the Lord. Ever since then, Jimmy has been able to have the happiness that he always envied in Nate. Christmas now, a year later, reminds him of the sacrifice that was made so that we all could know the joy of eternal life.
Now Christmas is more than ornaments and presents; it’s more than parties and Christmas plays. Now it is about love. It’s about God who loved us so much that He sent His only Son, on Christmas, to later die on the cross, and rise again, so that we might share His love. Now Jimmy knows that love, and he can have joy, even when things don’t go his way. He knows that Christmas is a time to celebrate God’s love for us