So they went to the second cart, and there was a chemistry set there that Moss would have given an arm for. He was so excited. His father looked at things, asked about prices. He said, “Well, let’s look around.” They went to cart after cart after cart down that long winter street, and Moss began to realize they were coming to the end of that block.
They were coming to the end of the vendors, and he started thinking, “What’s going on here?” He would have loved any of these toys. Why was his dad waiting? Then suddenly he realized that, although his father had gotten some money together to get Moss a toy, he didn’t have enough. He couldn’t buy any of the toys they had in the carts.
Suddenly that little 9-year-old boy got so mad and so upset and was filled with such rage, because it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. Other kids got toys, and he never had one, and now he wasn’t going to get one again. He opened his mouth, and he got ready to let out the biggest scream of rage and pain and despair that you could ever imagine.
But in telling the story later, he said that just before he did he looked up, and he saw his father’s face filled with anguish and despair. And for the first time in his life, he realized how much his dad loved him, because he realized whatever pain he was feeling over not getting a toy, his father was feeling double over not being able to give the toy.
All the anger and pain seemed to go out of his soul as he looked up into his father’s face and saw there the terrible heartbreak filling his father’s eyes. Then, as his father looked down into his son’s crestfallen face, without even thinking about it, his father reached out his hand. In response, Moss reached out his. And for the first time ever, without either one saying a word, they walked back to their house—they took the long way—holding hands.
In telling the story, Moss Hart said, “I have experienced Christmas in many situations and had many grand moments. But the greatest Christmas and the greatest gift I’ve ever been given came that night, for from then on my father and I walked and talked regularly, always holding hands.” Nothing was changed, but everything was different.
Friends, in this world with so many problems we all would like fixed, I invite you to remember the person Christmas is all about. In these sacred weeks, open your heart to the gifts He has come to bring. And as the angels said so long ago, fear not.