Author's Notes:Hi! Merry Christmas! Welcome to Day 2 of the Fanfiction Christmas Countdown and please stay tuned for tomorrow's installment which features ThurinRanger's Hobbit story, "Antlered Quadrupeds"
Characters List: Cindy Lou Who: She is a cute little two year old from Whoville who, upon waking up in the middle of the night, catches the Grinch in the act of stealing Christmas trappings. Since my story takes place fifty years in the future, she is a middle-aged lady.
With Christmas only days away, Cindy Lou Who, who was now fifty-two, stood before a large angry crowd in the center of Whoville with a determined glint in her bright blue eyes. Looking into the faces of her family, friends, and neighbors, she saw their fear, spite, anger, and hate, but could only feel sorrowful compassion for them in return.
Events in Whoville had been leading to this point for a number of years but this year, with a hotly contested and contentious mayoral election just behind them, the tiny village seemed to have gone over the tipping point.
If she were perfectly honest with herself, Cindy Lou would've admitted that she'd wanted to speak out against what was happening long before now, but she'd always managed to convince herself that she wasn't qualified. Even now, as her fellow Whos waited for her to speak, it felt as if there was a demon sitting on her left shoulder and an angel sitting on her right, battling for control of her heart and mind.
The demon kept suggesting that she was too late and that it was useless to speak up now; what was happening was going to happen, no matter what she did. It also suggested that, since she was perpetually two-years old in everyone's mind, no one would take her seriously anyway.
But the angel on her right shoulder asked, "If not you, then who?" He asked her if she saw anyone else who was willing to say what needed to be said and he reminded her that she was not a perpetual two year old, no matter what everyone thought, and that it was right and just for her to speak up; the Whos, he said, who knew the truth would recognize it and respond.
Though the two sides were waging a war in her head, Cindy Lou's love for her hometown and the fact that she was just a little too proud to back down now that she was standing in front of the whole village gave the angel's argument the upper hand.
She cleared her throat, gave the crowd a small demure smile and began, "My friends, thank you for taking a little time out of your busy day to come here and let me talk to you. I know that many of you—or maybe even all of you—don't want to be here and I'm also pretty sure that some of you don't even have the foggiest idea as to why I would call this meeting when there must be a hundred and one other, more productive, things that I could be doing to prepare for Christmas."
"But," she went on, "if you'll hear me out and take the advice of this little old lady then, I believe, that this meeting will be a productive way to prepare for Christmas-and beyond."
"As many of you know, I was no more than two years old when, fifty years ago, our old friend, the Grinch, descended from Mount Crumpet and tried to take our blessed Christmas away from us but then he returned everything when he realized that we didn't emphasized all the superficial trappings that he'd stolen."
She paused for a moment to chuckle at her memories, then continued, "You know, I wouldn't wonder if you younger ones might think that an old song we used to sing at Christmas sounds a little dorky, but do you older ones remember it? You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Remember the song that made the Grinch's heart grow three sizes so that he could finally understand what Christmas is really about? It starts out, "Welcome Christmas, come this way; welcome Christmas, Christmas Day."
"I remember one line that went, "Christmas Day is in our grasp, so long as we have hands to clasp". I think that's my favorite line. And another line says, "Welcome Christmas, while we stand, heart to heart and hand in hand."
"But as I look around our village circle right now, I don't see the kind of unity that our old song expresses and I wouldn't wonder if a lot of you—or maybe even all of you—think that we've gotten so far away from the unity that we once had that there's no way we can ever find our way back. Well, you know what? I don't believe that and I once heard a girl say that doing nothing is the enemy so I'm going to do my part, even if it's only a very small part, to put us right again."
"Now, don't get me wrong, I know that we've just come through the most bruising and, I daresay, extraordinary mayoral election that Whoville has seen in generations, but honestly, so what?"
She turned to face the the new mayor, who was standing in the front row, and said, "Mr. Mayor, I know that, at one point in your campaign, you said that you alone could fix our village's problems and, as I'm sure we all remember, a lot of people got very upset about that. Actually, I didn't care much for that quote myself, but wonder if some people got upset because, somehow, deep down inside they believed you and they didn't like what they heard."
"But, Mr. Mayor, if you'd indulge this old woman for a minute, I'd like to say that I disagree with your statement. In fact, I know that you can't fix all of our problems and the truth of the matter is that we celebrate Christmas every year to remind ourselves that the One who can solve all our problems began His extraordinary mission of mercy on the very first Christmas."
"You sir," she went on, "are our new mayor, but mayors come and go. It's our Creator and King who remains the same for all time."
She paused to chuckle again before turning her focus back to the entire crowd, "You know, I just realized something that maybe I didn't intend when I said it, but it brings up an interesting point. Did you catch how I said that both His mission and are recent mayoral election were extraordinary? I'm sure that it has something to do with the limits of language because no mayoral election could ever be on par with His mission, but I daresay, I said it."
"At any rate, it does make you think, doesn't it? Do you wonder if, perhaps, our founders envisioned that our little village could be an extraordinary example of His mission for the rest of the world and they set in place a system that, to the best of their knowledge and abilities, would with His help and guidance, take us to that destiny that they glimpsed for us? Then, somehow, somewhere along the way, we forgot or just stopped following the path that He laid out for us."
"So, now what, you ask? Shall we fight on, progressing forward, and maybe, incidentally, come back to the old path? Or maybe it would be better to leave the old path behind in favor of a new one that we create for ourselves? But are either of those ways actually possible? Can you find the right answer to a math problem by pressing on through the steps even after you've discovered an error? Or could you ever hope to find a new answer to a math problem if the old answer doesn't suit you anymore?"
"Instead, isn't it more progressive to return to the point of error and begin anew with the old way and forget the silly notion that a new answer could ever be possible?"
"But how, you might ask, can we go back and find His way again? Well, since He is our Creator and King, I think the best place to start is to try living as He taught us too when He lived among us. And may I suggest one tiny idea about how to start? Since I believe that He has called us to an extraordinary destiny, let's make our effort to live as He taught us extraordinary."
"Since He calls us to love, let's love others with extraordinary love. Since He calls us to have joy, let's live lives of extraordinary joy, even when it's tough to do so. Since He calls us to have peace, let's live with extraordinary peace in our hearts."
"Since He calls us to have patience, let's have extraordinary patience with everyone we meet. Since He calls us to kindness, let's have the courage to be extraordinarily kind, even in the face of extraordinarily hate. Since He calls us to goodness, let's be extraordinarily good, even in the face of extraordinary evil."
"Since He calls us to faithfulness, let's put extraordinary faith in Him. Since He calls us to gentleness, let's have extraordinarily gentle spirits. And since He calls us to have self-control, let's have extraordinary self-control, even in the face of extraordinarily temptation."
"If we do that," she finished, "I believe that we will, in fact, welcome Christmas and the One who came to us on that blessed day."
Author's Notes: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Gal. 5:22-23.
Thus by their fruit you will recognize them. Matt. 7:20.
Since starting this story, I felt like I should try Cindy Lou's challenge (if you can call it that) to make an extraordinarily effort, as opposed to a normal effort, so I can attest to the fact that it's very difficult! I'm still a work in progress. Just keeping it real!
Did you catch a quote from Lady Sybil of Downton Abbey? And one from Cinderella (2015)? How about some paraphrasing from CS Lewis' Mere Christianity?