Hello, friends! It’s that time of year, and this year’s Christmas story has finally arrived! But if you’re short on time and would rather listen as I read the story, you can check out this YouTube video.

Thank you for your time, and I hope you enjoy this short story. Merry Christmas!

The Invitation

Scarlet Paxton hurried through the falling snow to the bookstore on the corner as daylight slipped away. After stomping on the sidewalk and splattering snow on her jeans, she pushed through the door decked out in Christmas lights as a bell jingled overhead.

“Hello there. Can I help you find something?” a man asked, peering from behind a shelf.

Scarlet brushed off her coat, accidentally dusting a display of cookbooks in wet flakes.

“I need to buy a gift card,” she said as the wind howled, kicking up the snow outside the storefront window. “And hopefully I can find my way home.”

The man slid his armload of books to the counter. “I’d say. That snow is really coming down. Give me just a minute. I ran out of gift cards at the register, but I’m sure I have some in the back.”

After he disappeared down an aisle, Scarlet inspected the bookstore with its slanted ceiling, ripped carpet, and sad little Christmas tree slouching in the corner. She couldn’t understand why her sister, Tabitha, ever came here and decided she’d drop hints about the convenience of online shopping the next time she talked to her.

Suddenly, a little girl wearing a white gown with angel wings emerged from behind a display of children’s books as if she’d just stepped out of a Christmas program.

“Are you scared?” the girl asked. 

“Scared? No,” Scarlet said, before glancing around for a disheveled mom or a distracted dad to come and rescue the child from talking to a stranger but none came, so she bent to face the little girl. “Why would I be scared?”

“That you won’t be able to find your way home,” the girl said.

“Oh, I’ll be all right. The snow isn’t that bad.” Scarlet noticed a silver charm bracelet with a tiny jingle bell around the girl’s wrist. “I really like your bracelet. And your wings.”

The girl looked over her shoulder. “Thanks. They’re old.”

Remembering what it was like to wear Tabitha’s hand-me-downs, Scarlet smiled.

“Do you want to see the stable?” the little girl asked.

Scarlet hesitated, not wanting the man who’d gone after her gift card to think she’d left the store, but also feeling relief, knowing there must be a Christmas program or live nativity with parents nearby.

“Sure. I’d love to see the stable,” Scarlet said.

She followed the sweet little angel through aisles and book displays until the child stopped to adjust her wings, the bracelet jingling from her wrist. As Scarlet waited, she noticed the adjacent section of books about heaven. Staring at the titles of a place Scarlet couldn’t even imagine only made her feel further away from the God she was certain wanted nothing to do with her. She knew she wasn’t perfect like her sister, and she didn’t go to church all the time as a few of her coworkers did, so she was certain heaven had no room for someone like her.

The little angel in front of her stopped pulling on her wing and with a sigh, dropped her hands to her sides. “I can’t get it.”

“Here, let me help,” Scarlet said.

With a few bends in the right places, the pipe-cleaner wing lifted to match the other one.

“There. You’re all fixed up.”

“Thanks,” the little girl said, taking Scarlet by the hand, her bracelet giving a little jingle. “I just couldn’t get it.”

“Well,” Scarlet said, “sometimes we all need a little help.”

The child nodded. “I think you need help too. Come on.”

Before Scarlet could respond, the young angel tugged on her hand and led her down an aisle to a display of Christmas books with a wooden nativity, where the little girl paused before kneeling. Since the young girl still held tight to Scarlet’s hand, she found herself kneeling too.

“That’s Jesus,” the child whispered, staring at the small figurine lying in a miniature feeding trough. “Only that’s not really Him because He’s not a baby anymore. He’s a King, and He lives in heaven.”

At the mention of “heaven,” Scarlet felt her heart ache like being excluded from a trip everyone else would get to take. And knowing that heaven wasn’t for her, that she simply wasn’t good enough, that had to mean Jesus wouldn’t want anything to do with her either. Her own dad had made it clear that he didn’t want anything to do with her when he left right after Scarlet was born. He’d stuck around for her sister, posing for a few pictures at Tabitha’s birthday parties. But their dad had taken off before Scarlet could even celebrate with her first birthday cake.

“Guess what?” the angel whispered. “I’m going to heaven to see Jesus.”

Scarlet looked into the sweet child’s innocent eyes and knew it was true, but she had to look away when her guilt and shame found her. She felt ugly, repulsive kneeling on the floor with this beautiful child dressed as an angel.

“Do you want to come too?” the little girl asked.

A lump formed in Scarlet’s throat, making it impossible to speak.

The child whispered in her ear. “It’s okay. You said we all need help sometimes, so I’m going to help you.”

The young girl brought her hands together and closed her eyes, so Scarlet did too.

“Dear Jesus,” the girl began to pray, “Please help Scarlet to find her way home to heaven. It’s getting pretty dark, so please send the invitation right away. Amen.”

As Scarlet opened her eyes and was about to ask how the child knew her name, she gasped. Not only had the girl disappeared, but Scarlet found herself standing at the front of the store by the cookbooks. She jumped when her cell phone rang out from her purse, the caller ID revealing it was her sister, so she answered.

“Tabitha, something really strange just happened to me.”

“Are you okay?”

“I…I don’t know. Maybe I just imagined it.” Her voice trembled. “But I have to know, is there some kind of invitation to heaven?”

“Oh, Scarlet,” she said softly. “Yes, there is. It’s Jesus Christ. He’s the invitation and the only way there. He’s both. He’s everything!”

“Even for someone like me?”

“What do you mean someone like you? Scarlet, nobody’s perfect. We’re all messed up until Jesus gets a hold of us. He gets us ready for heaven.”

“Do you honestly believe that?”

“Yes, Scarlet. I do. But you have to believe it.”

Just then, the man who worked at the bookstore returned carrying a stack of gift cards. “I’m sorry that took so long. I don’t know who put them with the shipment of books on making Christmas costumes for children.”

Scarlet whispered into the phone, “Look, I’ve got to go. But I’ll call you when I get to my car.”

After ending the call and paying for her sister’s gift card, Scarlet thanked the man at the register. But as she neared the door, she spotted a shiny object on the floor. She picked up the tiny bell and it gave a little jingle.

Scarlet knew it had come from an angel who’d been sent to help her find her way home. And she knew there must be room in heaven for her since Jesus had gone to so much trouble to invite her. So, when she stepped outside and the snowflakes began to kiss the tears on her cheeks, she smiled as she whispered the answer to His invitation:

“Yes, Jesus.”

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