Streams of Mercy

Many years ago, I taught school in the mountains of southeastern Kentucky. It was in the early ‘70s that I discovered a very special “filmstrip” to show my class for Christmas- “Peter and the Hermit.” I’ve tried to find the story in some form and there no sign of it anywhere. I did find a Christmas reading by Paul Harvey about “The Man and the Birds.” It’s a little like the story I remember, and he doesn’t know his source either, so he calls his story “The Man and the Birds.” At our church we’ve planned an outing for our children, with activities including decorating a tree for the birds. Our outing has now become a “drive through” experience due to increasing Covid cases in our area. The children will be given a special bag with popcorn and cranberry garland and a Bagel/P-nut Butter/Bird Seed treat. Hopefully this will encourage them to go home and make more to decorate a tree for their feathered friends.

I had hoped to tell them the story of “Peter and the Hermit.” Instead I’ve written the story as I remember it and will give it to them as they drive through.

“Peter and the Hermit”

Years ago, in a little town in the mountains, a little boy named Peter made friends with an old man who lived alone up one of the “hollers.” He was called the “hermit” by everyone in town, because he always stayed off to himself. Peter would visit and talk with him and bring him cookies his mother had made and just loved being his friend. Again and again Peter would ask him to come to church, but he always said, “That’s not a place for someone like me.” Peter never really understood what he meant, but loved him and continued to visit day after day.

On Christmas Eve, Peter rushed to see his special friend, taking a warm plate of food and a small Christmas cake his mother prepared. Again Peter asked his friend to come with him; again the old man again said, “That’s not a place for someone like me.” Peter told him Jesus loved everybody that God sent Jesus so we could see and hear and understand God’s love for us. He told him that Jesus made a place for him, too. The old man just shook his head and sent Peter on his way.

Soon it began to snow, and as the old man sat alone beside the warmth of his woodstove, he heard a thumping sound against the front window, again and again. He went outside and found birds thrashing around in the snow. You see, they’d been drawn to the window and the warm glow inside. He loved the birds – they always kept him company – their company was “a place for someone like him.” He went to the barn and opened the door and lit a lantern, hoping to draw them in to shelter, but still they thrashed around in the deepening snow. He took a bag of seed from the barn and made a trail of seeds from the front window to the warm and welcoming barn. Still the birds did not understand. “If only I could communicate with them and they would know I want to help them,” he thought, “if only I could become a little bird they would understand me and know how much I care for them.”

The old man watched the little birds thrashing in the snow, not seeing the warmth and shelter of the barn or the trail of seeds leading them there. At that very moment the bells at church began ringing “Joy to the World.” In that moment the old hermit fell to his knees in the snow. All at once he understood. Now he “got it.” Just as he was struggling to help the birds to come to trust him and find the way he marked to get them to shelter, so God, after struggling to help us come to trust him and find the way to him, sent Jesus, so we could see and understand his love for us and love him back. Miracles happen on Christmas Eve!

Our experiences of Christmas will be different this year, but miracles still happen on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas, as Tiny Tim said, “God bless us every one.”

Elizabeth