Edward Grinnan Shares a Christmas Lesson About Angels

[MUSIC PLAYING] This is a story about Jay and his mother, Louise Tucker Jones from Edmond Oklahoma. Jay was about 10 years old at the time of this story, and Louise was very concerned that her son really truly understand the meaning of Christmas. Now she knew Jay got very excited at Christmas time. She knew Jay knew that Christmas meant presents, and usually that meant a new addition to his GI Joe collection. And that’s what he loved the most, and he spent a lot of time in his room playing with his GI Joes. 

On this particular Christmas, Louise made sure to buy a brand new nativity set that she wanted put up in the living room, and she wanted to use the figures in the nativity set to, kind of, teach Jay about the deeper meaning of Christmas. So as she brought the set home, she opened it up and she and Jay went through each figure and they unwrapped them. And they unwrapped the wise men, and Louise explained to Jay the wise men. And they unwrapped the animals, and they explained– she explained how the animals kept Jesus warm with their hot breath on that cold winter’s night. 

And they unwrapped the figure of Jesus, and Louise told Jay, well, who Jesus was and why he came into the world for us. And then they unwrapped the figure of an angel, and Jay said, oh, I know that. That’s my angel. 

Now Jay every night when Jay went to bed, he told his mother about the angel that stood guard at the door to his bedroom. And he used to tell his mother using the limited speech he had and some sign language that that angel stood guard over him at night while she slept. So she didn’t need to worry about Jay, because the angel watched over him. 

So she and Jay put the nativity set together. She let Jay arrange the figures. Well, Jay took all the figures and crowded them close to the baby Jesus. In fact, they were all pretty much standing right on top of the baby Jesus. 

So she let that go. She said fine, fine. So when Jay went off to his room to play with his GI Joe set. Louise put the figures back in a more aesthetically pleasing spread out kind of way. 

Well, the next day she’s looking at the nativity, well, Jay has pushed the figures all back again around the baby Jesus as close– they were leaning against each other practically over the baby Jesus. Well, this is a little frustrating for her. She puts them back. 

Well, it happens again in a few hours, and not only the figures around the baby Jesus but there’s a GI Joe in the scene as well. So she thinks, oh, I thought– I’m trying to teach him the meaning of Christmas and he keeps doing this. So finally she decides I’m going to let Jay have his way with the nativity set, and she leaves all the figures there. 

Then on Christmas Eve, she puts Jay to bed, and Jay once again says that the angel will be there standing guard while she sleeps. But he’s very frantic about something. He’s trying to give her a message. He’s tapping her arm and he’s signing and he’s trying to speak. 

And she says Jay, what is it? Jay, what is it? And he says it’s my angel. It’s my angel. And she says, yes, I know you’re angels there. 

He’s always there. You tell me that every night. She said no, no, he’s there, but he was there. My angel was there that night. 

And she suddenly realizes what he’s saying about the angel that he was in Bethlehem. And Louise thinks, of course, angels are immortal. There’s no life limit to an angel’s career. 

And she’s just stunned and thinking, of course, that’s why GI Joe is there as well, because the Christ message is universal and eternal. Anyone can be close to the Christ child, and that’s what Jay said. He said when my angel saw that, he said everybody came as close as possible to the baby Jesus, and that’s why I keep pushing the figurines back close to the baby. 

And Louise thought, I didn’t teach him about Christmas this year. He taught me about Christmas. So that’s the story of Jay’s angel. It’s one of my favorites from Guidepost. 

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