Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: It’s Christmas Day (in the present or living memory) (11/27/08)
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TITLE: Christmas Past and Present | Previous Challenge Entry
By Corinne Boback
11/30/08 -
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Oh, what a delightful Christmas morning picture she is going to make! What a wonderful family this must be, to have her up and ready for gifts and pictures first thing on Christmas morning!
Then she turns and looks into your face. You search her eyes for the twinkling happiness you know will be there. You look at her mouth for an impish smile. What you find, however, are eyes full of fear and confusion, and pursed, frowning lips. A lone tear runs down her cheek. She wipes it away hastily before her mommy sees it.
What is she confused about? You long to hold her reassuringly. What is she afraid of? This is a happy time of year, especially for children.
She opens the first gift, which is an exquisite baby doll, obviously very expensive. How precious this child must be to the family, that they would invest such money on a mere doll for her pleasure. The child holds the doll tightly. Suddenly, it is snatched out of her hands by her mother.
The next gift is handed to her. She opens it, fumbling with the ribbon and paper. Her mother slaps her hard across the face, calling her clumsy and “all thumbs.” The camera snaps a picture of the little girl as she is slapped, capturing her look of terror as a forever memory on film. Opening the lid to the box carefully, the child peeks into it. A dead snake rolls out as she screams and drops the box to the floor. Her mother laughs, taking another picture for her Christmas memories.
What is going on here? You do not understand. The confused, hurting little girl does not understand either. This Christmas morning ritual is just part of her life, a very small part of the abuse which is the reality of her troubled existence.
Several more gifts are opened. Some are beautiful dolls and toys, while others include a dead rat, a much-alive spider, and a teddy bear which has been cut to pieces. There seems to be two good gifts for every bad, but the trauma this child experiences opening these gifts will leave emotional wounds so deep you doubt they will ever heal.
Welcome to a Christmas morning in a Satanic cult family. The children are traumatized with gifts such as these, all in mockery of the birth of Christ. The “good gifts” are from the father the family worships and serves (Satan). The “bad gifts” are from the God that Christians celebrate this day and Satanists hate (Jesus Christ).
It is Christmas Day. The year is 2007. You see a grown woman sitting on the floor under the tree in the midst of beautifully wrapped packages. The first gift is handed to her by a woman who is her spiritual mother and pastor. She trembles momentarily, remembering that Christmas fifty years ago and what those gifts held inside. Her spiritual mom hugs her neck and assures her that God and His people only give good gifts to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Still, she toys with the ribbon and paper for a while. Finally opening it, she finds a cuddly teddy bear, so much like the one which was shred to pieces and given to her that Christmas so long ago. She has shied away from teddy bears all of her life. At last she can hold one in her arms!
Other gifts follow, handed one by one to her by the new family God has surrounded her with during the healing process. Each gift makes new memories of what Christmas morning is truly meant to be. Her spiritual mom, with her church family, is allowing her to experience the joy of Christmas morning as a child, giving back what the enemy had stolen from her childhood years.
Christmas pictures are taken. This woman smiles broadly, brown eyes sparkling. Tears flow, but she does not wipe them away. She finally knows emotions are okay to feel.
From mocking Christ on Christmas Day, to truly celebrating His birth! This woman has been healed and set free. She is, indeed, a grown-up child of God’s amazing grace!
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