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"How in the world did you come up with this?" wondered Father Jerry.
"Well after we had lunch yesterday I started thinking about what you said about this being the year of Mercy. To tell you the truth I had no idea what that meant, so I decided to Google it. I saw this one quote by Pope Francis that said, "Mercy is the best thing we can feel: it changes the world." I don't know, I just kept thinking about it. Mr. Decker has always been really nice to me and I felt bad that he had to go through something like this. That picture of Jesus you gave me kept popping in my head. I felt like I should do something to make him feel better. But I didn't know what. I just kept having the same thoughts in my head-Christmas cheer, change of scenery, change the world. I was listening to my mom singing in the car that one song..'sleigh bells ring are you listening.....beautiful sight, we're happy tonight, walking in a winter wonderland, and then all of a sudden I knew what we had to do. I told my mom first and she loved the idea and then we just called everyone to help us. It was a ton of work, but I think it was worth it. I think he really liked it, don't you?"
"Eric what you did was absolutely incredible! He definitely loved it! I mean look around you this is awesome! How did you know where to put everything without us even seeing you do it?"
"Oh I probably know Mr. Decker's property better than he does. I spent my childhood playing here. I knew you couldn't see anything past the evergreens from the house. I used to build forts in these trees. My friends and I used to have these huge nerf gun fights. We would start off in my yard, but we always ended up over here. There were more hiding spaces. I never really asked Mr. Decker if he minded, I just figured it was ok, because sometimes I would find small piles of of all our missing nerf bullets. I was pretty sure he was the one who found them all." As we continued to walk I pointed everything out to Father Jerry. "See that picnic table we put there, that was one of my favorite places to hide." I said smiling. "And see how we hung the lights across the trees over there? Don't tell my mom, but one time my friends and I tried tying a rope from one tree and swinging to the next. We all ended up with cuts and bruises after that great idea."
As we walked towards the nativity seen I could tell Father Jerry really liked it.
"Would you mind if we stopped here for a minute, Eric?"
Father Jerry got very quiet. He sat down and closed his eyes. I was pretty sure he was praying, so I tried to remain very quiet as well. After a couple of minutes, Father Jerry opened his eyes and said, "This is my favorite part, do you want to know why?"
"Sure."
"While we were growing up my mom always made a big deal about putting out the manger. It was her favorite Christmas tradition. She used to surround it with candles and poinsettias in a very similar way. I'm sure Charles would have thought the same thing when he saw this. I remember how my mom used to give baby Jesus a kiss and then say "Merry Christmas"! This is definitely more elaborate but it reminds my of childhood Christmas' ....... I just had to stop..... and tell God thank you.... I had to thank Him for answering my prayers tonight. Did you know that you were the answer to my prayers?"
"Me? What do you mean?"
"You brought back my brother's smile. For weeks I've watched Charles struggle with his pain, and his anger, and his disappointment. I tried everything to cheer him up, and I kept praying for a way to reach him. Tonight you reminded Charles how much love was in his life. He couldn't believe you and your mom would go to all this trouble just for him. He was so touched that everyone came tonight, I could see how much that meant to him. I don't know how I will ever be able to thank you."
"You don't have to thank me, I should be thanking you. Reading your prayer book.... it changed something inside me. I don't even understand it, but it's like you said, putting all your trust in Jesus is a game changer."
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