Okay guys! This story is going to be a Christian one-shot so if you aren't Christian or if you don't want to read it, that's fine. You don't have to read if you don't want to. I hope you all enjoy (This story is told from a third person pov. Usually I don't do third person pov, but hey why not give it a shot!)!
He was stuck. Stranded. He was too scared to go outside because he doesn't know how far a nearest gas station is from his car. He's stuck in the car because the snow has stranded him in an abandoned parking lot. He wondered why it was snowing in California. It never snows there!
Two days ago while the boy was at the store shopping, a weather alert came up on the saying that there would be a massive blizzard that could bring up to 6 feet of snow. Of course the boy didn't believe it. He remembered the last time the weather reports had said that. Barely an inch of snow had fallen onto the ground. So instead of listening to the warning, he continued to shop for presents in the now almost empty shopping mall. An hour or two later, he finally started heading home.
All of the shopping that he did had made him tired and stressed out. Shopping took too long and was actually hard work! He didn't think that he could make it home without falling asleep behind the wheel. The shopping mall was about two hours away from his home. Instead of taking the risk of driving home tired, he decided to pull into an old abandoned parking lot to rest. Once he was in the parking lot, snow was beginning to fall heavily from outside. The boy wondered if he was wrong about the so called 'blizzard' that was about to start and thought maybe he should just head home and seek shelter. But of course he denied that a blizzard was going to happen, and was asleep in a second. He had turned on his car heater so he wouldn't freeze to death if indeed there was a blizzard. The boy slept peacefully for a couple of hours…..
When he woke up it was dark. He tried to look outside his car window, but he couldn't see anything. His eyes widened when he figured out that snow was the reason why he couldn't see anything. He started to shiver, not only because he was scared that there was tons of snow outside, but because he was cold too! He noticed that the car had shut off. He tried to turn his car back on, but it wouldn't turn on. He tried again, but the car wouldn't turn on. Great. The car wasn't working. Of course it would stop working when there was a blizzard going on. He unlocked his doors and tried to open it, but the door wouldn't budge. There must be too much snow on the outside.
After about ten minutes of panicking he finally thought of an idea to get help. He pulled out his cell phone from his pocket. He had forgotten all about it. He turned his phone on and found that he only had 1% battery left. Quickly, he dialed in his house phone number and called. In the middle of the phone ringing, the phone shut off due to the battery being dead. He anxiously looked around for a phone charger but found out that there wasn't one in the car.
"Help!" he shouted, "Someone get me out of here!" He pounded on the car window. Nobody heard him. So he just sunk back into his seat and thought of ways to escape. None came to mind. He was going to be trapped, until someone found him and dug him out.
Back to present time, he was still stuck in his car. For two days he had gone without food, water or heat. He had done nothing but try to kick the car door open, but he couldn't. Shivering for warmth he opened one of the bags he had got from shopping at the mall and pulled out a blanket to cover his body. Even though he felt bad for using one of his sister's Christmas presents he had bought her, he had to keep himself alive someway. He leaned his seat back and decided to take another nap since there was nothing else he could do….
"Hey are you ok?" An unfamiliar voice said. The boy woke up to find an old man sitting next to him on the passenger seat's side of the car. The boy jumped up a little.
"W-who are you?" he said startled, "G-get out of my car!" He switched from a sleeping position to a fighting position. "Look I'm warning you…"
"Look I'm not going to hurt you" the old man replied calmly, "I'm here to help you. I was shoveling my driveway across the street with my snow blower and I thought I saw something underneath the snow over here. It's a good thing I checked." The boy didn't respond. "How long have you been in here?"
"Seems like forever" the boy responded, "I need to get out of here."
"Well don't worry. I live right across the street. You can stay there until the storm clears up."
"No. I have to get home. I have to be home for Christmas…."
"The streets aren't safe son. You won't make it a mile from here without freezing to death." The boy shivers again. "Look. Just come with me. You'll be safe at my house. You can use my phone too if you want. The boy thinks for a moment.
"Well ok I guess I can stay over there for a little while." The man nods and begins to exit the car.
"You have to climb out of the passenger's side of the car. I dug a little path heading to my house ok?" The boy nods and follows the old man out of the car. They both walked for about five minutes until they reached the front door of the man's house. The man opened the door and walked inside of the house as did the boy. Inside, the house was small. There was no upstairs and hardly any electronics except for a radio and the old fashioned telephone down the hall, but it seemed cozy enough.
The elder man led the boy to the living room and told the boy to sit. The boy did as he was told. The older man walked out of the room and soon came back with a blanket and a mug of hot coco. He threw the blanket over the boy and handed him the mug.
"Thanks mister" the boy told him.
"You're welcome and you can just call me James by the way."
"Ok. Thanks James." James then walked over to the radio and turned it on. On the radio were Christian Christmas songs. James pulled out his bible and started reading it.
"Are you going to go to a Christmas Eve sermon tomorrow with your family at church?" The boy shakes his head.
"We usually don't go to those" he replies.
"Oh." The old man sips his coffee, "You should go. It really reopens your mind about learning about the true meaning of Christmas." The boy just sniffles. "Have you read the story of the birth of Jesus Christ in the bible?"
"Uhh I think I did a long time ago. I sometimes watch the little cartoon on T.V. does that count?" James shakes his head.
"Nope."
"I guess I haven't had that much time this year to sit down and actually read the full story out of the bible. I've been so stressed out with buying presents, making gingerbread house, putting up Christmas decorations…"
"You should always have time to spend time with God."
"But I've been so busy buying presents and gifts-"
"You still need to spend at least some time with the lord. He has blessed you and others in so many ways."
"Well he hasn't blessed me right now."
"And why do you say that?"
"Because I was trapped in my car for two days and no one helped me out of there. I almost froze to death."
"I helped you."
"Yeah, but I was still stuck for two days." The old man sighed.
"Do you want me to read the story of the birth of Jesus Christ from the bible?"
The boy stood up. "Look. Thank you for helping me out and all, but I don't have time to listen to you read. I have to get home and wrap up my presents I bought. Where's your phone again?"
"Just down the hall." The boy got up and walked down the hall to find the old phone hanging on the wall. The boy dialed his home number and anxiously waited for someone to pick up, but no one answered. He tried several more times, but no one answered. He eventually gave up and walked back into the living room.
"Any luck?" James asked.
"Nope. Nothing. I hate this." The boy sunk back down into the couch.
"Well I guess that means you'll have a lot of time to listen to my story then."
"I told you James, I already know the story."
"It wouldn't hurt you to hear it again would it?"
"Well…I guess not."
"Good. Now let's start."
So James told the story about the birth of Jesus Christ. He started off with the part where the angel Gabriel talks to the Virgin Mary. He tells her that she is going to give birth to a son. His name will be Jesus. He told about how a pregnant Mary and Joseph traveled all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It took them days to get there.
When they got to Bethlehem, there was nowhere to stay because all of the places to stay were full. They had to end up staying in a stable. That night Jesus was born. Since they didn't have a crib to lay him in, they laid the baby in a manger. That night Sheppard's were in their fields near Bethlehem keeping watch of their sheep when an angel visited them and told them that a Savior, the Messiah had been born. Other angels then appeared and said, "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"
The Sheppard's made their way to Bethlehem and found baby Jesus lying in a manger. After they visited Jesus, they told everyone of the news of the baby and left everyone in awe. Sometime later, three wise men followed a bright star that signaled the birth of the new king to Bethlehem. In the house where Mary, Joseph and Jesus were staying, they praised and worshiped him. They brought him the gifts of gold, myrrh, frankincense and other ancient gifts of the world.
After the story was finished, the boy had a change of heart.
"Wow" he said to James, "I never realized how beautiful that story was before."
"Uh huh."
"I feel so bad now. I've been so busy caught up on life that I hadn't got a chance to read about the true meaning of Christmas. It's the birth of Jesus Christ. Not about buying and getting presents. Thank you for re-telling the story to me again."
"You're welcome." James took another sip of his coffee. "I'm glad I could help."
"You know what? I think I'm going to tell my family about the Christmas Eve Sermon at the church tomorrow. I would really like to go. It will probably take away all of stress we have too."
"Well good for you son." James replied, "Trust me, spending time with the lord always will make you feel better. I know that for a fact. Always put God first in your life." The boy yawned and laid his head down on the arm of the couch. "Tired?"
"Yeah a little. Hopefully my family will find me and come pick me up soon." The boy looks around the room. There are no pictures of James or his family hanging on the walls. "Do you have any family James?"
"Indeed I do."
"Are they coming over for Christmas?" He shakes his head.
"No. I'm going to my real home soon once I know that you're safe."
"Real home?" the boy asked confused.
"Oh. It's kind of hard to explain, but this is kind of my temporary home for now." The boy nodded. He thought maybe the man meant that this was his vacation home and his other house he stayed at usually was somewhere else.
"Umm ok." The boy yawns again and his eyes begin to droop.
"Good night" James told him, "Hope your family finds you soon." The boy falls asleep.
"Chase" a voice says, "Chase wake up." Chase opens his eyes and sees his sister and brother hovering over him.
"Adam? Bree?" he sits up. He's still in James' house.
"I'm so glad you're safe" Bree says as she hugs him, "Chase don't scare us like that ever again."
"I'm fine guys" Chase replies.
"The power finally came back on out our house" Adam explained, "So we were able to track your gps signal again."
"Are you hurt?" Bree asked, looking Chase up and down.
"No Bree" Chase told, "I'm fine. James helped me out of my car. It was stranded underneath the snow in the parking lot across the street."
"James? Who's James?"
"The guy that let you in the house." Adam and Bree looked confused at their younger brother. "He was old?"
"Not ringing a bell." Adam blurted out.
"Wait if James didn't let you in here" Chase started, "Than who did?"
"No one" Bree answered, "Before we went off to find you, Davenport said you were located at this abandoned home that no one has lived in for years. You must've come in here to warm up."
"What?" Chase sat up and got off of the couch. He looked around. The house seemed emptier than it did before. There was no telephone or hardly any furniture. The blanket that was on him last time he was up was gone and so was his hot coco mug. James's radio and coffee mug were gone as well. All that was in the house was this old couch he was lying on. The couch had cob webs and stuffing coming out of it. Funny. The couch didn't look like that before. Before, it had looked practically new. "But there was a phone here and a radio and…."
"Chase" Bree said leading her little brother back to the couch, "Maybe you should sit back down."
"No there was a man here! I promise! He helped me out of my car and he brought me here! I even was drinking hot coco from a mug! I can prove it!" Chase searched around for his hot coco mug, but he couldn't find it.
"Come on Chase" Adam said lifting Chase up into his arms, "Let's get you home."
"Adam put me down! I can walk!" Adam put Chase down.
"Let's go guys" Bree told them. "We have to get home, it's Christmas Eve and there's still a lot of work that needs to done." She glanced at Chase, "Even though I think you need to take it easy for a while Chase. You seem delusional." Chase of course rolled his eyes. "This year, Christmas is seriously wearing me out!"
"Ok" Chase replied, "But we HAVE to go to Christmas Eve Sermon that's going on tonight!"
"Since when did you start wanting to go to church?" Adam asked.
"Since James retold me the story about the birth of Jesus Christ." The three left the house.
When they got back to the house, Chase did some research and could not find James anywhere online. The house he had been in had indeed been abandoned a long time ago. No one had lived in the house for years.
That night, even though they were all busy and still had a ton of work to do before Christmas, Chase convinced the Davenport/Dooley family to go to the Christmas Eve Sermon at the nearby church down the street. After the sermon was over, the whole family thanked Chase for letting them know about the Sermon at the church. Mr. Davenport even promised that they would start going to church more often. When the family arrived back home, they all were shocked in what they saw.
All of the decorations that needed to still be hung up in the house before they had left for church were hung up. The Christmas dinner was made and set on the table, the presents were wrapped and placed underneath the tree, and there was fire in the fireplace.
"Who did this?" Tasha asked surprisingly, "I know that none of this stuff was done before we left out for church."
"It's a miracle" Leo exclaimed. While the rest of the family wondered around the house to awe at the decorations, Chase noticed that a piece of paper was on the kitchen counter. He picked up the piece of paper. It was a note. The note read:
Dear Chase,
I hope you and your family enjoyed going to the Sermon tonight. Just remember to never forget the true meaning of Christmas. It was nice to meet you and I hope you and your loved ones enjoy Christmas this year. Take me putting up all the decorations, making Christmas dinner, and the present wrapping as a gift from me.
From,
The Angel James
Sorry if the story was a little confusing. Basically, Chase had gone shopping for presents and he got stuck in a snow storm and he got trapped in his car because tons of snow was over his car (probably because the snow blower trucks blow the snow out from the roads and onto his car in the parking lot). James helped Chase out of his car and led him to his house.
While over there, James told Chase the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, because Chase was so busy caught up with buying presents that he had forgotten about what Christmas was all about and hadn't taken out time to read his bible. After the story had been told, Chase thanks the old man for reading him the story again and appreciates it. He falls asleep again and when he awakens, he finds that Adam and Bree have found him. He learns that James has disappeared and that the house that he is staying in has been abandoned for years.
Thanks to James, Chase and his family go to the Christmas Sermon and then decide to go to church more often than they have been. When they get back home, everything has been put up and made for Christmas morning. Chase finds a note from 'Angel James' telling him to remember the true meaning of Christmas always and that he is the one who made and put up everything for Christmas.
So….James is AN ANGEL! Sorry if it's still confusing. If you have any questions about this still, feel free to PM me. Make sure you leave a review for me, and have a very merry Christmas!