I was doing some last-minute Christmas shopping in a toy store and decided to
look at Barbie dolls for my nieces.

A nicely-dressed little girl was excitedly looking through the Barbie dolls as well,
with a roll of money clamped tightly in her little hand. When she came upon a
Barbie she liked, she would turn and ask her father if she had enough money
to buy it.  He usually said "yes," but she would keep looking and keep going
through their ritual of "do I have enough?"

As she was looking, a little boy wandered in across the aisle and started sorting
through the Pokemon toys.

He was dressed neatly, but in clothes that were obviously rather worn, and
wearing a jacket that was probably a couple of sizes too small.  He, too, had
money in his hand, but it looked to be no more than five dollars or so, at the
most.

He was with his father as well, and kept picking up the Pokemon video toys.  
Each time he picked one up and looked at his father, his father shook his
head, "no."

The little girl had apparently chosen her Barbie, a beautifully-dressed,
glamorous doll that would have been the envy of every little girl on the block.

However, she had stopped and was watching the interchange between the
little boy and his father.  Rather dejectedly, the boy had given up on the
video games and had chosen what looked like a book of stickers instead.  He
and his father then started walking through another aisle of the store.

The little girl put her Barbie back on the shelf, and ran over to the Pokemon
games.  She excitedly picked up one that was lying on top of the other toys,
and raced toward the check-out, after speaking with her father.

I picked up my purchases and got in line behind them.

Then, much to the little girl's obvious delight, the little boy and his father got
in line behind me.

After the toy was paid for and bagged, the little girl handed it back to the
cashier and whispered something in her ear.  The cashier smiled and put the
package under the counter.

I paid for my purchases and was rearranging things in my purse when the little
boy came up to the cashier.  The cashier rang up his purchases and then said,
"Congratulations, you are my hundredth customer today, and you win a prize!"

With that, she handed the little boy the Pokemon game, and he could only
stare in disbelief. It was, he said, exactly what he had wanted!

The little girl and her father had been standing at the doorway during all of
this, and I saw the biggest, prettiest, toothless grin on that little girl that I
have ever seen in my life.  Then they walked out the door, and I followed,
close behind them.

As I walked back to my car, in amazement over what I had just witnessed, I
heard the father ask his daughter why she had done that.  I'll never forget
what she said to him.

"Daddy, didn't Nana and PawPaw want me to buy something that would make
me happy?"

He said, "Of course they did, honey."

To which the little girl replied, "Well, I just did!"

With that, she giggled and started skipping toward their car. Apparently, she
had decided on the answer to her own question of, "do I have enough?"

I feel very privileged to have witnessed the true spirit of Christmas in that toy
store, in the form of a little girl who understands more about the reason for
the season than most adults I know!

May God bless her and her parents, just as she blessed that little boy, and me,
that day!

      -- Sharon Palmer, Tennessee   

Source: Heartwarmers

1 Comments:

 Anonymous said...

Bless you for being so considerate and crediting me with my byline. It's not uncommon for this story to be reprinted without crediting me as the author, so I wanted to let you know how grateful I am that you went to the trouble of doing so!

May you and yours have a blessed holiday season!

~Namaste~
Sharon Palmer