What We Need is a Miracle

by Larry James

    Excitement filled our building last week as the word spread. “A Channel 4 news crew is on the way!” several people reported around the interview room and in the “grocery store” of our inner city “food pantry.” Sure enough, Linda Hwang, accompanied by a camera man from KDFW-TV FOX 4, arrived around mid-morning. Their assignment: to capture a “holiday hunger” story for viewers.

    We have grown accustomed to special attention during the holiday period from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. I always wonder if people think hunger goes away during the remaining eleven months of the year. I suspect the annual holiday interest in poor people has as much to do with the often extravagant indulgence of those of us who are affluent as it does with the pain of the poor. Since I know I’ll be searching for the Alka-Seltzer after lunch on Christmas day, I wonder how the homeless and hungry of the city will fare.

    Linda Hwang looked for a different kind of story. She seemed to know our turf. After making a point to spotlight the needs of poor people year round, she looked for a family she could really get to know. She impressed all of us by spending over two hours with the people who had come to receive assistance with food, housing, employment and utilities.

    She found a family. As the mother shopped in our grocery store, Linda asked the two little boys with her what they wanted for Christmas. The smallest boy was too shy to answer. His big brother, about 7-years-old, thought for just a moment and then answered decisively, “I want my daddy to call me.”

    His father left the family over two years ago. The mother faces a daily battle to keep food on the table and a roof over her family’s head. All her boys want for Christmas is a dad in their lives.

    Christmas is all about miracles. Our world is a mosaic of darkness and light. I saw both in the “food pantry” last week. Those two little guys brought light into our building. But, none of us could miss the darkness surrounding their lives either. What’s needed here is a miracle, don’t you think? Someone needs to intervene. A dad needs to get the message and call. Chances are he won’t. A little boy will wait, wonder and keep growing. We need a miracle.

    As you enjoy Christmas with those you love, remember this little boy. Don’t be paralyzed by guilt. Just don’t forget him. Allow his need to teach you something about how to respond to your own children, mate, parents and friends at this special time of the year. And then, seek the miracle of Christmas by renewing your own efforts and your own commitment to build the community needed to sustain and lift this little boy who simply needs the love of a dad.

    God is into miracles. Christmas makes that much clear. But, he always uses people to produce the miraculous results needed. We need a miracle in this city, a Christmas-like miracle. Maybe it is time for all of us to step up and sign on as members of his miracle team.

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