judy graves | god's christmas party

Every Sunday evening we would gather in the shabby little chapel at First United Church on the corner of Hastings and Gore.  There would be about 10 of us sitting on stackable chairs, in a circle. The people who attended were, perhaps, the poorest and most broken people in Vancouver. I came every week to bring my friend Flo. Flo suffered from a kind of schizophrenia that caused her to believe she was God. We always had to start our worship with hymns and prayers of praise, because if Flo didn't get praise up front, all hell would break out. 

Usually, our Community Minister would lead the service. But sometimes a wonderful elderly pastor from the rural prairies would come to Vancouver, and he would spend his Sunday evenings leading our little group. One Christmas he told us this story.

God decided to throw a Christmas Party for all his children. He created a huge room. In the corner of the room God cause the tallest tree to grow, and covered it with beautiful decorations. God created a table so big that there was a place set for every single person in the world, and then God covered the table with the best food and gifts you could imagine. And then, God invited everyone in the world. 

EVERYBODY came! They were all talking and playing and dancing and laughing. Everyone was happy! God was happy!

And then, God left the room for a few minutes to go get Jesus. It was his birthday party, after all. But when they came back, everything had changed.  A few of the children, who were bigger and stronger than the others, had taken most of the food and most of the gifts to their end of the table and wouldn't share them with the others. All of the other children were crying out.  And God was ANGRY!

The Minister paused and looked around the circle. Our little Sunday night congregation were sitting up stiff in their chairs, eyes open wide. Even Flo held her breath. 

And then the Minster leaned forward and looked into each face. He paused, then said very tenderly "But God was NOT angry with YOU." 

I looked round the circle. The frightened bodies softened. There were tears on every face.

And God and his son headed straight for the end of the room where there weren't many presents left, and not too much food – and didn't they have a party! 

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