Christmas
On Christmas Eve, Piper and Nick attended the Fellowship Church for one of its Christmas Eve services. Thousands of tiny white lights dotted the walls of the cozy church, appearing as a constellation in the sky. As expected, the congregation was jubilant as they celebrated the birth of the Savior. Songs such as “Joy to the World” were belted out in glory and praise. The music was riveting, full of happiness and joy. When the songs ended, the pastor stood up and shared the following story with the congregation:
“There was once a very wealthy old man who lived in a mansion, which was adorned with all sorts of expensive items. Exquisite pictures and paintings lined the walls, fine furniture filled the rooms, and fancy decorations were placed all about. The wealthy man had but one son and the son joined the military. He died soon afterwards, while serving in the war, which greatly saddened the old man.
One day, a friend of the young man who died came to the house of the old man. He carried with him a portrait of the old man’s son, which he had painted himself. He told the old man that he had served with the son in the war, and that the son died while trying to protect him. The portrait was his way to remember the love the son had shown for him. He gave the portrait to the old man, who thanked him.
The quality of the portrait wasn’t to the old man’s usual standards, quite unlike the portraits he had purchased in the past. Yet something about the picture was unique and precious. Something seemed real about the way the friend had portrayed his son’s eyes. They were exactly as the old man had remembered. He hung the portrait in a very prominent place in the home, just above the mantle of a fireplace.
A few years passed before the old man died. With no other family members to inherit his wealth, he had directed that an auction be held. The first item to be auctioned was the portrait of his son. People came from all around to the auction, anxiously anticipating the opportunity to purchase some valuable items. When the auctioneer held up the portrait, no one bid on it. He called out again and a little old lady who worked as a maid in the old man’s home bid on the portrait. She gave all that she could afford, which was $50. Since no one else bid any higher, the portrait went to the lady.
The auctioneer then announced that the auction was over. People were shocked, asking about all of the other items in the home and about the home itself. ‘It’s over. You see, the will said that ‘everything goes to the person who purchases the picture of my son.’”
Piper looked at Nick to gauge his thoughts. He turned to her and winked with a slight smile. She winked back and smiled.
The pastor then called for a prayer in which he asked the congregation to ask Jesus to come into their hearts. She closed her teary eyes and prayed.
Please Lord, bless us with children. Please Lord. Please.
No other present she would receive that Christmas would compare to that Christmas present. She wanted nothing more than a child.
The pastor closed the prayers with the announcement that the church was in the final stage of selecting a new youth pastor. After a year of searching, the church leaders had identified several potential pastors whose purpose would be to help grow the congregation. Piper looked forward to meeting the new pastor. A new perspective on the scriptures can be enlightening.
Exiting the church was practically impossible, as cars were stuffed into every corner of the parking lot. Nick and Piper sat in their SUV for what seemed like an hour waiting for the car line to move. Neither said much, which gave Piper time to reflect on the service and her life with Nick.
She recalled the times before they were married, when they would sit in his family room in silence reading books and enjoying each other’s company. Chipper was always cuddled up next to them.
“Chipper,” Piper said. “I loved that dog. Nick, what do you think of getting another dog? I miss Chipper. That could take our minds off of having children.”
“I don’t want to take our minds off of having children. That’s all I think about Piper. You know, I’ve been giving this issue a lot of thought. We don’t need to have our own children. If God doesn’t bless us that way, we should consider adopting kids. We could be good parents to a few of the kids at the Collins Foster Home. What do you think of that?”
“I think we’ve already adopted all of them and have watched so many grow up. I think if we adopted just two or three, the others we know so well would feel slighted.”
“Piper, I hadn’t thought of it that way.” Nick paused. “We’ll need to think about things. It’s not like we’re in a rush. We’re only 29. We have plenty of time to either have our own kids or adopt kids.”
“That’s true. Only 29.”
“Piper, I agree with you. We should get another dog. I miss Chipper too.”
“Dogs are living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy and feel loved,” Piper added.
Nick chuckled. “So true!”
***
“Nick!” Piper screamed from the second floor of their home. “You need to come up here!” Her heart was pounding and her palms were covered in sweat. She danced about their bedroom in her nightgown and slippers, just to expend some of the energy welling up inside of her. Her face was beaming with joy as the excitement mounted within.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
“Honey, are you alright?” Nick yelled back as he ran out of the kitchen and leapt up the stairs. He found her dancing about the bedroom with a white piece of plastic in one of her hands.
“Nick, I’ve got great news!” She said as she waved the plastic around, preventing Nick from getting a clear glimpse of the test strip.
“Is that a pregnancy test?”
Piper giggled as she waved the plastic around in front of Nick that displayed the word, “Yes.”
“Yes, you’re pregnant?” Nick asked.
“Yes! I’m pregnant!”
Nick grabbed Piper and hugged her, holding her tightly for several minutes while kissing her. “Thank you Lord!” He proclaimed. “My wife is pregnant!”
“I’m just so happy, Nick.”
“I am too. Believe me! We’ll have to celebrate. Throw a party and let everyone know.”
“Yes, definitely. But we shouldn’t throw a party just yet. It’s a little too soon to tell people. They say pregnancies should be kept a secret for three months, just to be sure that the baby is strong enough to come to full term.”
“Oh, no problem. Our baby will be very strong. Just like us. This is just so great, Piper. I’m thrilled beyond belief.”
“I’m going to book an appointment with an obstetrician. I’ll need to get checked out.”
“Piper, I love you. I knew this would work out for us. I knew that God would answer our prayers. It’s all about having faith and feeling blessed.”
“I have faith too, Nick, but I also had my doubts.”
A flash of light surged past one of the windows in the bedroom, catching Piper’s attention. She walked towards the window and peered outside into their yard and the yards of the neighbors nearby, wondering about the source of the light. Did she imagine it? Did Nick see it? She looked up into the sky and down around the trees and about the yards, but saw nothing.
Then something moved. A small black dog was moving between the bushes just below her. It was similar in size and breed to Chipper and would be a perfect addition to their home.
“Nick, there’s a little black dog in our yard. Let’s go check it out.”
“A dog?”
Nick and Piper walked into the yard where they found the little dog. It was sitting still near one of their bushes, watching them intently. Piper noticed its collar, so she moved closer to check whether the collar bore the owner’s identification. Maybe the dog wasn’t meant for them.
She held her hand out, allowing the dog to sniff it and become comfortable with her. Then she gently swept her hands over the collar, looking for any identification. A small gold-colored locket was clipped to the collar, but the only word on the locket was the word Faith, the dog’s name. The dog had no other identification. Piper’s hopes were again spiked as she caressed the dog’s raggedy fur. A few fleas jumped out of its fur and into her hands, informing her that the dog was likely a stray that needed a good bath. She picked up the dog and carried it into the house and into a tub. Nick followed her, seemingly aware and accepting of her plan to become the dog’s owner.
***
In addition to an appointment for Faith that Piper scheduled with the veterinarian, she scheduled regular appointments for herself with her obstetrician. With each appointment, she grew more excited about her pregnancy and more comfortable with the idea of sharing the news with her friends and family. Once the baby was six weeks old, she knew that she would be hearing its heartbeat so she decided to ask Nick to come with her to that important appointment.
Piper sat up on the doctor’s table with Nick by her side in a chair in one of the rooms of the obstetrician’s office as they waited for the doctor to arrive.
Doctor Patel walked in, wearing her white scrubs, and said, “Let’s see if we can hear a heartbeat.”
She placed a stethoscope on Piper’s belly and moved it around, listening intently for the heartbeat of a baby.
“I can hear it, Piper. I can hear the heartbeat. You’re going to be a mother!” She connected the stethoscope to an amplifier, allowing Nick and Piper to hear the heartbeat as well.
“Thump. Thump. Thump.”
Piper smiled at the doctor and then at Nick as he rose from his chair to be by her side. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it, smiling from ear to ear.
“You’ll want to make an appointment for an ultrasound. The nurse at the front desk will give you the referral. Congratulations Mom and Dad!” She said. “Next time you come in, we can do a blood test to tell the baby’s gender, if you’re interested.”
“We are,” Nick blurted. “Very interested.”
“We’ll add that to the schedule,” the doctor said. She took a few more notes and completed items on her chart, before exiting the room.
Piper hopped off of the table and gave Nick a hug. “So happy. I think I’ll call my sister later today to let her know. And I’m going to ask her to send us the rocking chair. I’ll call my dad too. He’s going to be thrilled!”
***
After two more weeks, Nick and Piper learned they were going to be the proud parents of a baby boy. They decided to name him Patrick, after one of Nick’s favorite saints and favorite holidays. Little Patrick was developing well in Piper’s belly, and she soon developed a nesting instinct, feeling the urge to prepare the home for the baby’s arrival.
“I’m going to paint his room a nice shade of ocean blue,” she told Nick one day as they sat next to one another on a couch in the family room of their home. Faith sat across from them on a different couch and stared at her new owners. She had adapted to her new home and Piper and Nick had already grown attached to her. Faith was a nice addition to the growing family.
“We’ll have to go out soon to purchase a crib, some clothes, and other baby items too.”
“Maybe we can do that this weekend,” Nick offered.
“I’ll have to let my work know soon too. Or maybe I’ll wait. I probably won’t start showing until about twenty weeks or so, so maybe I’ll hold off until then.”
“Do you want to keep working after you have the baby?” Nick asked.
“Yeah. I’m sure we’ll need the money, but it would be nice to take a couple of months off to care for Patrick after he’s born. Little Patrick is going to want his mom to be by his side for as long as possible.”
“I’m sure he will. You’ll be a great mom, Piper. A great mom.” Nick stood up and headed into the kitchen, where he grabbed Faith’s leash. “Do you want to walk the dog with me?”
Faith howled and leapt from the couch before sprinting into the kitchen with her tail wagging from side to side. It was clear she knew the word, “walk.”
“Sure,” Piper answered as she stood up. “She’s our other little baby. I’m sure her previous owner is missing her much. She’s such a little sweetheart.”
Faith’s backside jiggled about in such excitement that Nick could barely get the opportunity to connect the leash to her collar. “C’mon, girl. Stop. Hold on. Let me put this on you.”
Piper chuckled as she noticed Faith’s little body shaking all about. “Such a cutie. I love this little dog already!”
Nick grabbed Faith and connected the leash to her. Faith took the lead and tugged Nick behind her as they crossed the lawn. Her floppy ears bounced up and down as she led them through her favorite parts of the neighborhood, occasionally leaping into the woods to chase squirrels and lizards along the way.
“You’re going to be a great mom,” Nick said.
“Thanks, Nick. You’ll be a great dad too.” Piper grabbed his hand and squeezed it, feeling his hand squeezing hers in return. They walked hand in hand entrenched in their own thoughts for a while before heading back to their home.
Piper’s attention soon turned to the youth ministry at their church. Maybe this was attributable to her budding pregnancy. Or perhaps she felt called to make a difference in the lives of children more generally. Possibly she felt called because she wanted to teach, and the opportunity to teach Christianity was exciting, particularly since her day job was in the context of a secular organization in which such activities were not the norm and were often not appreciated or tolerated.
She started as the fourth grade teacher of a Discipleland class in the Fellowship Church. Teaching fourth graders was sometimes difficult for Piper, who noticed that many had short attention spans and made it known that they would rather be advancing to the next level in their videogames than sitting at a table listening to the lesson or participating in the activities. Some acted up, revealing the infusion of sugar in their breakfasts. Others sat patiently and listened. The patient ones were a blessing.
The curious were also a blessing, as they sometimes challenged Piper to better explain the Bible. As an example, one morning, a young boy wondered how it was that God could write a person’s name into the Lamb’s Book of Life fifty years before that person actually died, not knowing how he would be completing his life. Piper told him that God’s time isn’t linear and doesn’t flow in one direction from beginning to end. God can move back and forth in time, so today he can see the entire life of a person who may have fifty more years on the earth left to live.
“Because God can move back and forth in life, we know that He’s already beaten Satan in battle. He’s already won. So anytime Satan whispers doubt in your ears, whisper back ‘God has already won.’” Piper said.
The boy also pondered the relationship between science and Jesus. He noted that some of Jesus’ miracles, such as healing the sick, could occur today through medicine and various scientific discoveries.
“Good point. But science doesn’t walk on water or bring the dead back to life. Science will never be able to feed thousands of people from a few baskets of bread and fish. And science will never be able to see into the hearts and minds of men and women as Jesus was able to see into the hearts and minds of Matthew the tax collector and the woman at the well. Science will also never see into the future, as Jesus did with Peter when He told him that he would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed.”
The boy nodded his head and smiled. Though his questions had been answered, Piper knew that as always, he would come in with more questions the following week. To her, curiosity was a blessing and a sign of a very strong and healthy mind. One can never defend the faith if one can’t ask and answer critical questions about it.
After only a couple of weeks, though, Piper questioned herself. The kids were acting up in class and she found it difficult to control them and to keep their interest and attention. Wondering whether her instruction was valuable to the Discipleland program, or whether other teachers could do the job better than she, she said a prayer and asked for direction. The following Sunday, something surreal occurred in that small Discipleland room, which Piper noticed midway through the lesson.
“Jesus told Peter that he would be the rock upon which He would build His church,” she started. “Yet Peter had some doubts about Jesus. Even though Jesus walked on water right in front of him, Peter secretly doubted. Peter tried to believe in Jesus and he tried to walk on water with Him, yet his doubt caused him to sink. Jesus had to rescue him when he sank. Do you know what He said?”
“No,” a couple of kids responded. Eighteen kids were sitting quietly around several tables in the room with their eyes glued on Piper.
“He said, ‘you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ Later Jesus told Peter that he would deny Him three times, but Peter said that he would never do that. But he did. He was scared. He doubted, and he didn’t want to be tortured and crucified like Jesus, so he denied that he knew Jesus three times just as Jesus predicted. Peter felt badly about that, yet he still hid with the other apostles in their homes after Jesus was crucified. It wasn’t until he saw Jesus after He died and received the Holy Spirit that he stopped doubting. That was when he started to bravely spread the good news, despite the risk of being killed for being a Christian. Peter preached and preached until one day they captured him and killed him on a cross. But Peter had no fear of death. Why do you think he had no fear?”
“Because he knew he was going to go to heaven,” a boy answered.
“Exactly.”
The kids were still silent, which shocked Piper. Unlike all of the other times she had been with them, the kids were silent and all ears. No one spoke out of turn. No one stirred in their desks or grabbed pencils from others or acted hyper or jittery. No one.
“I’ll bet I could have heard a pin land on the ground if I had dropped it,” she later told Nick.
When one of the mothers picked up her daughter after that class, she told Piper that her daughter only wanted to go to the “middle Discipleland service,” when Piper was teaching. She also said that Piper was making a big impact in her daughter’s life.
“You’re making a difference. You should know that,” she said.