Susanna Maria’s Christmas
A young girl is not going to receive a Christmas present until the Nativity scenes hear her mother’s prayers and go on an adventure into the city.
Susanna Maria was four years old and she and her mother lived in a little apartment not far from the housing projects.
That apartment was so small that it just had two rooms: a main room and a bedroom. It was Christmas Eve and Susanna Maria’s mother was starting to do that ritual she did every night during Advent. You see, over the years, she had saved up for and bought Nativity scenes from different countries and she placed them around on the shelves of that main room. She had quite a collection by now. There was a simple wooden one from Mexico, one of carved soapstone from west Africa, and a ceramic one from the States. And she had several others.
Every night, she would go around and say a prayer in front of each of those Nativity scenes. All the while, Susanna Maria would stand beside her and look up at all the shepherds, wisemen, Josephs, Marys, and Baby Jesuses. Susanna Maria usually had a smile on her face, but tonight, for some reason, she had a frown.
“What’s wrong?” her mother asked.
“I don’t have any presents for Jesus,” Susanna Maria replied.
Well, this made her mother very sad because her mother didn’t have any presents this year for Susanna Maria. Her mother lost her job several months earlier and she didn’t have any money to buy Susanna Maria a gift.
Her mother didn’t know what to say or do, so she just continued saying her prayers silently in front of each Nativity scene. When they finished with their prayers, both of them went into the other room, closed the door, and went to sleep.
The main room was now completely still and completely quiet. But then, all of sudden, there was a very little noise in that room. It was so small that it sounded like someone had dropped a dust bunny on carpet. But yet, it was a noise. One of the Marys had moved her arm and had nudged the Joseph standing next to her, who in turn, moved his arm and had nudged the shepherd standing next to him. And, pretty soon, every figure in that Nativity scene were moving and alive.
{The entire story is in the audio recording above.}